Electrical analogue of the cardiovascular system with the RVAD connected "in series" from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery and "in parallel" from the right atrium to the pulmonary artery, respectively. All the circuit elements have been described in [1,2,3]
To reproduce the behaviour of the TandemHeartTM pump and the combination of TandemHeartTM and ProtekDuoTM cannula as right ventricular assist device (RVAD) the TandemHeartTM pump can be connected both as a right atrial-pulmonary arterial and a right ventricular-pulmonary arterial connection, driven by four different rotational speeds.
Placement of the outflow of the ProtekDuoTM in the main pulmonary artery (PA) allows a complete bypass of the failing right ventricle improving pulmonary flow, left atrial filling pressures (LAP), and left ventricular (LV) preload. This can also reduce ventricular interdependence and leftward shift of the interventricular septum that occurs in right ventricular failure (RVF).
The heart numerical model, which consists of the left ventricle and atrium (left heart), the right ventricle and atrium (right heart), and the septum, is included in the network configuration assembled for the study. All these elements are described by variable elastance model; elv (erv) represents the left (right) ventricular time-varying elastance; ela (era) is the left (right) atrial time-varying elastance; eVspt (eAspt) represents the time-varying interventricular (interatrial) septum.