Soft robotic artificial left ventricle simulator capable of reproducing myocardial biomechanics.

Journal: Science robotics
PMID: 39321276

Abstract

The heart's intricate myocardial architecture has been called the Gordian knot of anatomy, an impossible tangle of intricate muscle fibers. This complexity dictates equally complex cardiac motions that are difficult to mimic in physical systems. If these motions could be generated by a robotic system, then cardiac device testing, cardiovascular disease studies, and surgical procedure training could reduce their reliance on animal models, saving time, costs, and lives. This work introduces a bioinspired soft robotic left ventricle simulator capable of reproducing the minutiae of cardiac motion while providing physiological pressures. This device uses thin-filament artificial muscles to mimic the multilayered myocardial architecture. To demonstrate the device's ability to follow the cardiac motions observed in the literature, we used canine myocardial strain data as input signals that were subsequently applied to each artificial myocardial layer. The device's ability to reproduce physiological volume and pressure under healthy and heart failure conditions, as well as effective simulation of a cardiac support device, were experimentally demonstrated in a left-sided mock circulation loop. This work also has the potential to deliver faithful simulated cardiac motion for preclinical device and surgical procedure testing, with the potential to simulate patient-specific myocardial architecture and motion.

Authors

  • James Davies
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
  • Mai Thanh Thai
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
  • Bibhu Sharma
    Department of Biomedical Engineering, Center for Biomedical and Robotics Technology (BART LAB), Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand.
  • Trung Thien Hoang
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
  • Chi Cong Nguyen
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
  • Phuoc Thien Phan
    Robotics Research Center, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
  • Thao Nhu Anne Marie Vuong
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
  • Adrienne Ji
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
  • Kefan Zhu
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
  • Emanuele Nicotra
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
  • Yi-Chin Toh
    School of Mechanical, Medical, and Process Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4000, Australia.
  • Michael Stevens
    Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, VA.
  • Christopher Hayward
    Department of Cardiology, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.
  • Hoang-Phuong Phan
    School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
  • Nigel Hamilton Lovell
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
  • Thanh Nho Do
    Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

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