Project A

Pulsatile vs. non-pulsatile cardio pulmonary Bypass

Dept. Biomedical engineering, Materials Science and Application (BMSA)

Coordinator: dr. G. Rakhorst

Project description:

During open-heart surgery the heart is arrested for some time to enable surgeons to open the heart or to operate in areas that are difficult to approach. At that time a patients circulation is continued by a heart lung machine. During extra corporeal circulation several unnatural phenomena take place: The body temperature is reduced from 37 to 32, the blood becomes anticoagulated systemically and is diluted by the priming solution of the machine, at the same time it contacts with a large surface of foreign materials and the organs become perfused from a non-pulsatile blood stream. As a consequence of this complex situation mean blood pressure decreases from 100 to 60 mmHg, thus reducing the arterial venous pressure gradient (perfusion pressure).

In this project effects of pulsatile and non-pulsatile ECC assisted circulation are studied using Laser Doppler Flow Measurement techniques (assessment of skin microcirculation), iontoforeses techniques (assessment of endothelial function), biochemical assessment of organ function with new biomarkers like N-Acetyl β D-glucoseaminidase (NAG) and Fatty Acid Binding Proteins (FABP’s). Also the effects of HES containing priming solutions on Red Blood Cell aggregation is studied in detail.

Research is performed in lab settings, animal studies and in clinic.