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Updated: Oct 23, 2025
Hemocompatibility Testing of Blood-Contacting Implants in a Flow Loop Model Mimicking Human Blood Flow
Published on: March 5, 2020
Validation of a Miniaturized Test Loop for the Assessment of Human Blood Damage by Continuous-Flow Left-Ventricular
Eva Woelke1, Ilona Mager1, Thomas Schmitz-Rode1
1Department of Cardiovascular Engineering, Institute of Applied Medical Engineering, Helmholtz Institute, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstr. 20, 52074, Aachen, Germany.
Abstract:
Despite improved hemocompatibility of left-ventricular assist devices (LVADs), assessment of blood damage remains mandatory in preclinical testing as standardized by ASTM-F1841. The most relevant test fluid is fresh, non-pooled human blood, but the limited volume of a standard donation requires significantly smaller loops than those commonly used with animal blood. In a recent study with porcine blood, we verified a miniaturized test loop with only 160 mL for the ASTM-conform paired testing of at least two LVADs and a static reference. Here, we validated this mini test loop for standardized assessment of blood damage with one 450-mL single donation of fresh human blood. Blood damage was assessed for HeartMate 3 and BPX-80 in 9 experiments with heparinized human blood for 6 hours. We analyzed plasma free hemoglobin, von Willebrand factor (vWF) concentration and collagen-binding functionality and calculated indices of hemolysis and vWF-ratios. Overall, we observed less blood damage compared to our previous study; however, the differences in mean indices of hemolysis and in mean normalized vWF-ratio between BPX-80 and HeartMate 3 were consistent for human blood. Thus, our mini test loop proved to be valid for preclinical standardized assessment of blood damage with only 450 mL of fresh human blood.
