HEMODYNAMIC STUDIES WITH A NEW PULSATILE PUMP

There has been renewed interest in the study of pulsatile blood flow. The ever increasing use of extracorporeal circulation adds clinical significance to these studies. Moreover an understanding of the factors involved in pulsatile blood flow is important in the design of an artificial heart and in cardiac augmentation systems. The effectiveness and efficiency of such a device may be dependent upon factors related to pulsatile flow. Previous studies from our laboratory and by others have indicated that pulsatile flow is associated with decreased systemic and pulmonary vascular resistance as compared with non-pulsatile flow(1, 2). In order to study further the hemodynamic effects of pulsatile and non-pulsatile blood flow, a new compact pulsatile pump has been devised. It is the purpose of this report to describe it, discuss its advantages over pre-existing models, and mention its experimental use.