Mechanically-foldable axial flow blood pump: response-surface-based structural optimization and hemolytic performance evaluation

We designed and optimized a foldable axial-flow blood pump for transaortic implantation. The optimized configuration demonstrates a 6.9% head improvement to 2.346 m and 17.9% HI reduction to <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>1.081</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mi>%</mml:mi></mml:mrow> </mml:math> . Furthermore, increasing tip clearance from 0.2 mm to 0.4 mm provides additional hemolysis reduction without excessively compromising the pressure head.