ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med. Technol.
Sec. Cardiovascular Medtech
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmedt.2025.1671938
Preliminary In-vitro Hemolysis Evaluation of MR-conditional Blood Pumps
Provisionally accepted
Dominik Thomas Schulte1*
Carolina Pietsch2Natalija Topalovic2
Michael Hofmann3
Martin Oliver Schmiady2
Miriam Weisskopf2
Marianne Schmid Daners1- 1Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- 2Center for Surgical Research, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- 3Center for Cardiac Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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Purpose: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is hindered by the incompatibility of conventional heart-lung machines (HLMs), which contain metallic components that interfere with the MRI environment. This study evaluates the hemolytic performance of three MR-conditional blood pump prototypes—roller, non-occlusive roller, and centrifugal—designed for use during neonatal surgery. Materials and Methods: Each pump was tested using acid-citrate dextrose-stabilized bovine blood at a neonatal-relevant flow rate of 1 L/min. Due to limitations of the setup, a low pressure head of 10 mmHg was applied uniformly across experiments. Hemolysis was assessed using normalized index of hemolysis, and a linear mixed-effects model was applied to account for experimental variability. Results: The roller pump showed the lowest hemolysis (1.84 ± 1.90 mg/100 L). The centrifugal pump showed the highest (8.43 ± 1.63 mg/100 L), alongside mechanical leakage. Random effects (SD = 2.07) indicated moderate inter-experimental variability. Conclusion: While all prototypes performed comparably to standard references under controlled conditions, further testing at physiological pressure levels and stricter adherence to ASTM F1841 is necessary for broader validation.
Keywords: MR-conditional, Blood pump, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, Hemolysis, In-vitro testing, Cardiopulmonary Bypass
Received: 23 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Schulte, Pietsch, Topalovic, Hofmann, Schmiady, Weisskopf and Schmid Daners. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dominik Thomas Schulte, schulted@ethz.ch
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.