Bolding and emphasis is mine. From the official news release: While this is "tech", it's certainly more focused on the ~science of it all.
The total artificial heart (TAH) was implanted as part of an early feasibility study overseen by the US Food and Drug Administration. According to a statement from the Texas Heart Institute where the implantation surgery was carried out, the heart "is a titanium-constructed biventricular rotary blood pump with a single moving part that utilizes a magnetically levitated rotor that pumps the blood and replaces both ventricles of a failing heart."
BiVACOR, which has been working on the device since 2013, says that the advantage of using a magnetically levitated rotor to drive the device's blood-circulating function is that there is no friction, which can be such a damaging force to machinery that scientists are looking at ways to reduce its effects. The device is by no means the first artificial heart to be used – the first successful implant took place in 1969 – but it is the first to employ this novel use of maglev technology.
The roughly fist-sized TAH uses a small rechargeable external controller to keep it whirring along and it is able to push through blood at the rate of 12 liters per minute, which is enough, BiVACOR says, to allow an adult male to engage in exercise. The company also points out that other artificial hearts rely on flexible polymer diaphragms to pump blood, but such components can wear out. With just one part suspended in space through magnetism – and no valves – BiVACOR's heart could technically last longer.
The BiVACOR TAH represents a paradigm shift in artificial heart design. The size of the BiVACOR TAH is suitable for most men and women (Body Surface Area >1.4 m2). Despite its small size, the BiVACOR TAH is capable of providing enough cardiac output for an adult male undergoing exercise. Using magnetic levitation technology, the same principle used in high-speed trains, the product features a unique pump design with a single moving part: a magnetically suspended dual-sided rotor with left and right vanes positioned within two separate pump chambers, forming a double-sided centrifugal impeller that propels blood from the respective pump chambers to the pulmonary (lung) and systemic (body) circulations. The TAH has no valves or flexing ventricle chambers, with MAGLEV making pulsatile outflow possible by rapidly cycling the pump’s rotor. The non-contact suspension of the rotor via MAGLEV is designed to eliminate the potential for mechanical wear and provide large blood gaps that minimize blood trauma, offering a durable, reliable, and biocompatible heart replacement.
While this is "tech", it's certainly more focused on the ~science of it all.
Bolding and emphasis is mine.
From the official news release:
While this is "tech", it's certainly more focused on the ~science of it all.