# Multifunctional VAD Technology for High-Risk Pediatric Patients

> **NIH NIH R01** · DREXEL UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $381,270

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY: The treatment of children with heart failure, secondary to acquired or congenital heart
disease, is a formidable challenge for clinicians. Heart transplantation, when available, becomes the only
lifesaving option. Fortunately, children can benefit from a ventricular assist device (VAD): a medical device
designed to assist the heart's left ventricle (drives blood to the body) or the right ventricle (drives blood to the
lungs). However, VAD technologies for children significantly lag behind those for adults. While adult devices
have been employed in children, the operation of these pumps at off-design conditions increases the potential
for irregular blood flow, contributing to blood cell damage (hemolysis) and dangerous clotting (thrombosis).
High-risk pediatric patients have severely limited options due to their size and require devices for a range of
physiological heterogeneity due to childhood heart disease and the increased cardiovascular demands of
physical growth. These challenges elevate the heart failure risk for patients, create substantial treatment
obstacles for teams caring for these pediatric patients, and underscore the need for next-generation device
innovation. There still remains a substantial unmet clinical need for pediatric cardiovascular blood pumps, and
thus the long-term goal of this research is to advance a breakthrough innovation of a high-impact, hybrid-
design, magnetically levitated, medical device that uniquely integrates two blood pumps for supporting
pediatric patients. This novel device (The Dragon Heart) has only 2 moving parts - an axial pump impeller for
the pulmonary circulation and a centrifugal pump impeller for the systemic circulation. As a hybrid dual design,
the centrifugal pump rotates around the separate axial pump domain. The device utilizes a magnetic drive
system to facilitate a longer operational lifespan and wider clearances inside of the pumps. Wider clearances
lower fluid stresses, hence reducing the risk of thrombosis and hemolysis. It will be able to produce continuous
or pulsatile flow, and a wireless energy transfer system is implemented to eliminate the abdominal driveline.
The device is compact (60mm x 50mm) and delivers physiologic pressures and blood flows for high-risk
pediatric patients with varying levels of heart failure, anatomic defects, and size or age constraints. We have
generated compelling preliminary data to support the viability of this device design. Our central hypothesis is
that this innovative, hybrid integration of an axial flow pump within a centrifugal flow blood pump will
successfully provide versatile cardiac support to pediatric patients with heart failure. This hypothesis will be
tested in these Aims: 1) establish the optimal axial and centrifugal pump geometries that achieve design
requirements through iterative design; 2) characterize the ability of prototypes to attain design criteria by
hydraulic, hemolytic, and phantom-MRI flow studies; 3) demon...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10029650
- **Project number:** 1R01HL153536-01
- **Recipient organization:** DREXEL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Amy Throckmorton
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $381,270
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-07-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10029650

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10029650, Multifunctional VAD Technology for High-Risk Pediatric Patients (1R01HL153536-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10029650. Licensed CC0.

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