Secretary of Energy, Four Star Admiral James D. Watkins visits the Particle Flow Research Lab to see our bioengineering work on artificial hearts and lungs

In my lab with Secretary of Energy Admiral Watkins showing him an artificial heart that was is clinical trials at Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Our Sixth Secretary of Energy, Four Star Admiral James D. Watkins,
Commander of the Pacific Fleet, Chief of Naval Operations, Chair of George H. W. Bush’s commissions on HIV/AIDS.

In 1991, an artificial heart, the Novacor Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), was in clinical trials at the Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, St. Louis University Hospital, and Stanford Medical Center.   For unknown reasons, it was causing micro-clots to be formed then released into the blood stream. The clots were causing strokes and fatalities in patients.

Dr. Harvey Borovetz, Assistant Director of the Artificial Heart Program at Presbyterian Hospital, visited the DOE Particle Flow Research Lab to ask for our help in identifying the design flaw.   We got to work immediately.

The Novacor LVAD is implanted beside a failing human heart to take over the work of a failing heart until a heart is found for transplant. The bioengineers from the University of Pittsburgh used a Jarvik artificial heart to simulate the conditions of a failing human heart.

Heart Transplant Surgeon Dr. Bob Kormos prepares a Novacor LVAD for implant.
I took this photo standing five feet away in the Main Operating Theater of Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.

We had an international team of engineers and scientist working in the Particle Flow Research Lab to find the design flaw in the Novacor LVAD

Human blood is a mixture of a fluid and particles -- the particles being blood cells.   I had been developing flow visualization technologies known as Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) to study particle flow fields in energy conversion processes.   So I was able to quickly invent a new technology, a variation of Particle Tracking Velicometry, named Fluorescent Image Tracking Velocimetry (FITV).  It provided the first   visualization and measurements blood flow through an artificial heart.

This made it easy for Novacor engineers to identify and correct the design flaw.   There were areas of flow stasis around the pericardial tri-leaflet valves used in the Novacor LVAD.   Flow stasis triggers clot formation.   Below are videos showing how FITV works and the area of flow stasis.

Patients no longer had strokes. 
Clinical trials continued at all three research hospitals.

I applied for a patent for the FITV technology in 1992. U.S. Patent 5,333,04 was awarded in 1994.   There was a huge demand for the FITV technology from organizations developing artificial hearts and lung devices.  

I’d already been planning to market Particle Tracking Velocimetry systems using Atomic Vapor Lasers (copper-vapor lasers).   An FITV system would be a small variation to my existing plan.

But on September 8, 1994, Flight 427 went down outside Pittsburgh.   Five engineers from the DOE Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center went down on Flight 427.   I knew them all.   Tim McIlvried, an outstanding fuel scientist, was in the office next to mine. We were the same age.   He was engaged. Bill Peters was a Project Manager who funded some of my work.   After sitting through five funerals in one week, I could not do the flying required to market the FITV technology.

In 2002, Harvey founded the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh.   He served as its first Chairperson from 2002 through .2013.   The Bioengineering Department is hugely successful. It now has 180 graduate students.  

Harvey is also a co-founder of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine , where he holds the position of Deputy Director of Artificial Organs and Medical Devices.   According to Harvey, the FITV technology has now saved thousands of lives.

Below are videos of the FITV technology being applied to Novacor LVAD and other artificial heart and lung devices.   Each video opens in a new window.

Distinguished Professor Dr. Harvey Borovetz

Click to watch video (plays in new window)
Demonstration of how the FITV imaging technology allowed us to see flow fields inside an artificial heart for the first time.

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Flow fields through the pericardial tri-leaflet heart valve of the Novacor LVAD. Recirculation zones formed around the base of the valve stems triggering the formation of small clots.

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Using FITV to visualize and measure blood flow driven by a micro-turbine (5mm diameter).  The micro-turbine was used in a version of the Hattler Respiratory Catheter. The micro-turbine is spinning at 5000 RPM. High speed video was taken at 7300 frames/sec.

Today LVAD's are much smaller. The Magenta Medical LVAD is a catheter-mounted micro-turbine. It shrivels during insertion to fit through a vein. When in the left ventricle it expands into a micro turbine pump spinning at 24,000 RPM.   In 2021, I designed an FITV flow visualization system for Magenta’s microturbine.    

Click to watch video

Experiment to simulate the flow of blood cells in an aorta with an aneurysm. I used my FITV technology to create the colored flow visualization on the right.
From The Antaki Lab , Cornell Meining School of Bioengineering.

The first micro-turbine heart pump, the Nimbus AxiPump in 1993. Invented by the great Rocket Scientist Ken Butler

Development of an Axial Blood Flow Pump,   Butler, K ., Shaffer, F., J. American Soc. Artificial Internal Organs, Vol. 38, No.3, 1992

Quantitative Measurement of Flow in a Miniature Axial Blood Flow Pump using Fluorescent Image Tracking Velocimetry , Kerrigan, J., Antaki, J., Maher, T., and Shaffer, F., ASME Fluids Engineering Division Meeting, Symp. on Laser Anemometry, Lake Tahoe, Nevada, June 1994

Fluorescent Image Tracking Velocimetry of the Nimbus Axipump,   Kerrigan, J., Shaffer, F., et al. J. American Soc. Artificial Internal Organs, 1993

In 2021, I helped Dr. David Israeli MD and his team design a high-speed flow visualization system to see the flow of blood cells between the blades of a 0.5 mm diameter turbine spinning at 24,000 rpm. The flexible turbine is shriveled so it can be inserted through a vein, then opens up and starts spinning when inside the left ventricle. It's used to support   patients undergoing high-risk coronary interventions and patients admitted with cardiogenic shock.   Magenta Medical of Kadima Israel