Experimental Validation of a Cardiac Simulator for in vitro Evaluation of Prosthetic Heart Valves.

Objective: This work describes the experimental validation of a cardiac simulator for three heart rates (60, 80 and 100 beats per minute), under physiological conditions, as a suitable environment for prosthetic heart valves testing in the mitral or aortic position. Methods: In the experiment, an aortic bileaflet mechanical valve and a mitral bioprosthesis were employed in the left ventricular model. A test fluid of 47.6% by volume of glycerin solution in water at 36.5 degrees C was used as blood analogue fluid. A supervisory control and data acquisition system implemented previously in LabVIEW was applied to induce the ventricular operation and to acquire the ventricular signals. The parameters of the left ventricular model operation were based on in vivo and in vitro data. The waves of ventricular and systemic pressures, aortic flow, stroke volume, among others, were acquired while manual adjustments in the arterial impedance model were also established. Results: The acquired waves showed good results concerning some in vivo data and requirements from the ISO 5840 standard. Conclusion: The experimental validation was performed, allowing, in future studies, characterizing the hydrodynamic performance of prosthetic heart valves.