Controller Design for Left Ventricular Assist Devices in Patients with Heart Failure

Abstract

In recent years, heart transplantation has been considered a suitable method for heart failure (HF), a significant cardiovascular disease. Heart failure often means chronic heart failure or congestive heart failure. In this case, the heart is unable to pump enough blood to the vital organs. Usually, heart failure occurs on the left side of the heart that pumps blood throughout the body. No one can ever deny the impact of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) as a bridge for recovery in the patient’s treatment process with congestive heart failure. In this paper, we aim to control the LVAD flow and the goal is to return the person to everyday life by using this assist device and control it perfectly. Since heart failure could occur if the pump speed is lower or higher than some thresholds, to prevent heart failure, the controller should provide an appropriate pump speed. This paper prohibits these ranges by designing a suitable controller that can track the flow of healthy heart behavior through a Frank-Starling-Like controller. The controller performance is evaluated by a simulated model of the heart and the results are satisfactory.