Intracardiac turbines suitable for catheter-based implantation - an approach to power battery- and leadless cardiac pacemakers?

Haeberlin, Andreas; Rösch, Yannick; Tholl, Maximilien Victor; Gugler, Yvan; Okle, Jan; Heinisch, Paul Philipp; Reichlin, Tobias; Burger, Jürgen; Zurbuchen, Adrian (2020). Intracardiac turbines suitable for catheter-based implantation - an approach to power battery- and leadless cardiac pacemakers? IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering, 67(4), pp. 1159-1166. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 10.1109/TBME.2019.2932028

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OBJECTIVE

Cardiac pacemakers are powered by batteries, which become exhausted after a few years. This is a problem in particular for leadless pacemakers since they are difficult to explant. Thus, autonomous devices powered by energy harvesters are desired.

METHODS

We developed an energy harvester for endocardial implantation. The device contains a microgenerator to convert a flexible turbine runner's rotation into electrical energy. The turbine runner is driven by the intracardiac blood flow, a magnetic coupling allows hermetical sealing. The energy harvester has a volume of 0.34 cm 3 and a weight of 1.3 g. Computational simulations were performed to assess the hemodynamic impact of the implant. The device was studied on a mock circulation and an in-vivo trial was performed in a domestic pig.

RESULTS

In this article we show that an energy harvester with a 2-bladed 14 mm diameter turbine runner delivers 10.2 ± 4.8 μW under realistic conditions (heart rate 80/min, stroke volume 75 ml) on the bench. An increased output power (> 80 μW) and power density (237.1 μW/cm 3) can be achieved by higher stroke volumes, increased heart rates or larger turbine runners. The device was successfully implanted in vivo.

CONCLUSION

The device is the first flow-based energy harvester suitable for catheter-based implantation and provides enough energy to power a leadless pacemaker.

SIGNIFICANCE

The high power density, the small volume, and the flexible turbine runner blades facilitate the integration of the energy harvester in a pacemaker. This would allow overcoming the need for batteries in leadless pacemakers.

Item Type:

 Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

 04 Faculty of Medicine > Faculty Institutions > sitem Center for Translational Medicine and Biomedical Entrepreneurship > Cardiac Technology and Implantable Devices
04 Faculty of Medicine > Faculty Institutions > sitem Center for Translational Medicine and Biomedical Entrepreneurship
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Cardiovascular Disorders (DHGE) > Clinic of Cardiology
08 Faculty of Science > School of Biomedical and Precision Engineering (SBPE)
10 Strategic Research Centers > ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research > ARTORG Center - Cardiovascular Engineering (CVE)
08 Faculty of Science > School of Biomedical and Precision Engineering (SBPE) > Smart Surgical Instruments and Medical Devices

UniBE Contributor:

 Häberlin, Andreas David Heinrich, Rösch, Yannick Pascal, Tholl, Maximilien Victor, Gugler, Yvan (B), Reichlin, Tobias Roman, Burger, Jürgen, Zurbuchen, Adrian

Subjects:

 600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology

ISSN:

 1558-2531

Publisher:

 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Language:

 English

Submitter:

 Andreas Häberlin

Date Deposited:

 08 Oct 2019 09:33

Last Modified:

 24 Oct 2023 10:41

Publisher DOI:

 10.1109/TBME.2019.2932028

PubMed ID:

 31380741

BORIS DOI:

 10.7892/boris.133738

URI:

 https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/133738

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