BOSTON (TIP): Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers, including an Indian American, have developed a robotic replica of the heart’s right ventricle, which mimics the beating and blood-pumping action of live hearts.
The robo-ventricle combines real heart tissue with synthetic, balloon-like artificial muscles that enable scientists to control the ventricle’s contractions while observing how its natural valves and other intricate structure’s function, according to a report.
The artificial ventricle can be tuned to mimic healthy and diseased states. The team manipulated the model to simulate conditions of right ventricular dysfunction, including pulmonary hypertension and myocardial infarction.
They also used the model to test cardiac devices. For instance, the team implanted a mechanical valve to repair a natural malfunctioning valve, then observed how the ventricle’s pumping changed in response.
They say the new robotic right ventricle, or RRV, can be used as a realistic platform to study right ventricle disorders and test devices and therapies aimed at treating those disorders.
“The right ventricle is particularly susceptible to dysfunction in intensive care unit settings, especially in patients on mechanical ventilation,” says Manisha Singh, a postdoc at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).
“The RRV simulator can be used in the future to study the effects of mechanical ventilation on the right ventricle and to develop strategies to prevent right heart failure in these vulnerable patients.”
Singh and her colleagues reported details of the new design in an open-access paper in Nature Cardiovascular Research.
The right ventricle is one of the heart’s four chambers, along with the left ventricle and the left and right atria. Of the four chambers, the left ventricle is the heavy lifter, as its thick, cone-shaped musculature is built for pumping blood through the entire body. The right ventricle is a “ballerina” in comparison, as it handles a lighter though no-less-crucial load.
Its anatomical complexity has made it difficult for clinicians to accurately observe and assess the right ventricle function in patients with heart disease.
“Conventional tools often fail to capture the intricate mechanics and dynamics of the right ventricle, leading to potential misdiagnoses and inadequate treatment strategies,” Singh says. To improve understanding of the lesser-known chamber and speed the development of cardiac devices to treat its dysfunction, the team designed a realistic, functional model of the right ventricle that both captures its anatomical intricacies and reproduces its pumping function.
The model includes real heart tissue, which the team chose to incorporate because it retains natural structures that are too complex to reproduce synthetically.
“With its ability to accurately replicate tricuspid valve dysfunction, the RRV serves as an ideal training ground for surgeons and interventional cardiologists,” Singh says. “They can practice new surgical techniques for repairing or replacing the tricuspid valve on our model before performing them on actual patients.”
Currently, the RRV can simulate realistic function over a few months. The team is working to extend that performance and enable the model to run continuously for longer stretches. They are also working with designers of implantable devices to test their prototypes on the artificial ventricle and possibly speed their path to patients.