Abstract: A ventricular assist device incorporating a rotary pump such as a rotary impeller pump implantable in fluid communication with a ventricle and an artery to assist blood flow from the ventricle to the artery. The device includes a pump drive circuit supplying power to the pump, one or more sensors for sensing one or more electrophysiological signals such as electrogram signals in and a signal processing circuit connected to the sensors and to the pump drive circuit. The signal processing circuit is operative to detect the sensor signals and control power supplied to the pump from the pump drive circuit so that the pump runs in a pulsatile mode, with a varying speed synchronized with the cardiac cycle. When an arrhythmia is detected, the pump drive circuit may also run the pump in an atrial arrhythmia mode or a ventricular arrhythmia mode different from the normal pulsatile mode.

Abstract: A heart support device for pulsatile delivery of blood comprising a first and a second ventricle and a pump. Both ventricles comprises a fluid chamber and a blood-conveying chamber, wherein each fluid chamber can be filled with a fluid or emptied by way of the pump in such a way that an expansion or contraction of the fluid chamber occurs. In an expansion of the fluid chamber of a ventricle, a compression of the blood-conveying chamber of the same ventricle takes place, wherein a rigid pressure plate is disposed between a fluid chamber and the respective blood-conveying chamber, said pressure plate being able to move in the direction of the respective blood-conveying chamber.

Abstract: Systems and methods to monitor cardiac function using information indicative of lead motion are described. In an example, a system including an implantable medical device can include a receiver circuit configured to be electrically coupled to conductor comprising a portion of an implantable lead and be configured to obtain information indicative of a movement of the implantable lead due at least in part to a motion of a heart. The system can include a sensing circuit configured to obtain information indicative of cardiac electrical activity. The system can include a processor circuit configured to construct a template representative of a contraction of the heart, where the template can be constructed using the information indicative of the movement of the implantable lead due at least in part to the motion of the heart during the contraction, and using the information indicative of the cardiac electrical activity sensed during the contraction.

Abstract: One aspect of an intravascular ventricular assist device is an implantable blood pump where the pump includes a housing defining a bore having an axis, one or more rotors disposed within the bore, each rotor including a plurality of magnetic poles, and one or more stators surrounding the bore for providing a magnetic field within the bore to induce rotation of each of the one or more rotors. Another aspect of the invention includes methods of providing cardiac assistance to a mammalian subject as, for example, a human. Further aspects of the invention include rotor bodies having helical channels formed longitudinally along the length of the body of the rotor where each helical channel is formed between peripheral support surface areas facing radially outwardly and extending generally in circumferential directions around the rotational axis of the rotor.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an implantable device for improving the pump function of the heart of a human patient by applying an external force on the heart muscle. The implantable device comprises at least one implantable pump device comprising: A fluid, A first reservoir having a first volume and at least one movable wall portion, for varying said first volume, and A second reservoir being in fluid connection with said first reservoir. Wherein said implantable pump device is adapted to allow free flow of fluid between said first reservoir and said second reservoir, and wherein said first reservoir, said second reservoir and said fluid connection forms a fully implantable closed pump device, and wherein said fully implantable closed pump device is adapted to transfer force from said first reservoir to said second reservoir.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a heart prosthesis/artificial heart comprising a series of drawing and pressing devices. The prosthesis/artificial heart is to be implanted in a patient to replace the pumping activity of a heart. The heart comprises at least two compartments (5, 6, 12, 13, 25, 26, 27, 28), substantially surrounded by a rigid-wall provided house (2, 3, 31). The house contains a number of drawing and/or pressing devices (10, 48, 50), which are partly fixedly attached to the rigid-wall provided house (2, 3, 31) and are partly fixedly attached to a flexible, elastic wall layer (7, 30) arranged in a respective compartment. The drawing and/or pressing devices (10, 48, 50) are arranged to draw the elastic wall layers (7, 30) towards the rigid-wall provided house (2, 3, 31) for filling the compartments (12, 13, 27, 28).

Abstract: A dual pusher-plate blood pump implanted into the body with either mechanical or biological valves (17) for unidirectional blood circulation through a circulation variable chamber (blood chamber) (12) to assist circulation. LVAS comprises a receptacle (housing) (4) provided with an inlet (3) and an outlet (5) The pump inflow (3) is connected to the left atrium and the pump outflow to the descending thoracic aorta (5,7) and a pulsating external pneumatic unit (8).

Abstract: A dual pusher-plate blood pump implanted into the body with either mechanical or biological valves (17) for unidirectional blood circulation through a circulation variable chamber (blood chamber) (12) to assist circulation. LVAS comprises a receptacle (housing) (4) provided with an inlet (3) and an outlet (5) The pump inflow (3) is connected to the left atrium and the pump outflow to the descending thoracic aorta (5,7) and a pulsating external pneumatic unit (8).

Abstract: The invention concerns an artificial heart capable of being wholly implanted including in a single-piece module (2) two independent ventricular chambers (22G, 22D) each provided with two orifices (11G, 11D, 12G, 12D) equipped with a valve for respectively releasing and pumping blood. The volume of each chamber (22G, 22D) is variable by means of a mobile membrane (17, 18) constituting a wall of the chamber (22G, 22D) and hydraulically actuated by a fluid driven by an actuator comprising a motor and a volumetric pump. The ventricular chambers (22G, 22D) are arranged so as to form an upside-down V, between whose branches are arranged the actuators and the space (37) for the actuating fluid. The chambers (22G, 22D) include on the outside convex walls (7G, 7D) the releasing and pumping orifices (11G, 11D, 12G, 12D).