UC Irvine

Cardiovascular diseases are among the world’s leading causes of death. Therefore, itis important to define advanced heart failure using signs and symptoms, hemodynamics, exercise testing, biomarkers, and risk prediction models. However, most medical and device therapies fail to define stage-D heart failure. Therefore, there is a need to develop a method to synchronize Cardiac Compression Devices with the heart of those patients who suffer from Stage‐D heart failure. Previous cardiac compression devices do not synchronize with cardiac contraction mechanics and their natural direction, and some cannot help with the diastolic phase of the cardiac cycle. Therefore, the devices were not synchronized with a pacemaker to compress the heart when the heart paces irregularly and slowly. The method discussed in this paper uses a synchronized rotation mechanism of a servo motor via a pacemaker to compress the heart. The servo motor is synchronized with the pacemaker to help with this process and follows the heart’s movement. For the purpose of this project, the servo motor was used to rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise at a set angle continuously to help compress the heart. A potentiometer was used to set the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to control the angular speed of the motor; in this case, the motor has the ability to rotate at different angular speeds to help compress the heart as needed based on the patient’s heart conditions. This method aims to improve the quality of life and extend the life expectancy of patients with Stage‐D heart failure since they do not currently have any other options than palliative care to alleviate their congestive heart failure symptoms. To improve the system in the future, the system should be built with higher quality motors, reducing the possibility of collecting noise. All systems including the required sensing of pacemaker and motor wiring should be checked for loose connections as any human error could cause a shift in the results. This biological system will have to undergo in vivo and vitro testing prior to clinical trials such as large animal testing such as pigs, sheep, and dogs to provide with safety information and activity of cellular products. For vitro testing, ideally, the hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide gene family is suited to function as a pacemaker when overexpressed. Finally, the synchronized system that compresses the heart can be used to help patients with stage-D heart failure by improving their cardiac output with no need for donors and open-heart surgery which is not safe due to their health conditions.