This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by von Smekal, A. Articles by Marincek, B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by von Smekal, A. Articles by Marincek, B. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Heart Attack Related Collections Congestive Cardiovascular imaging agents/Techniques CT and MRI CV surgery: transplantation, ventricular assistance, cardiomyopathy Chronic ischemic heart disease

(Circulation. 2000;102:1871.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Images in Cardiovascular Medicine

Multislice Spiral CT Follow-Up of a Patient With Implanted DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device

Alexander von Smekal, MD; Mario L. Lachat, MD; Jürgen K. Willmann, MD; Michael E. DeBakey, MD; Marko I. Turina, MD; Borut Marincek, MD

From the Institute of Diagnostic Radiology (A.v.S., J.K.W., B.M.) and Heart Surgery (M.L.L., M.I.T.), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Dr. DeBakey is a consultant.

Correspondence to Mario L. Lachat, MD, Department of Heart Surgery, Rämistrasse 100, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.

A 52-year-old patient suffering from an extensive acute myocardial infarction of the left ventricle with a residual ejection fraction of 15% developed a rapidly progressive terminal heart insufficiency with low cardiac output syndrome and severe dyspnea. To bridge the time gap until transplantation, a new type of left ventricular assist device (DeBakey VAD) was implanted. The patient could be extubated 3 hours after surgery and returned to the regular ward on postoperative day 4 after an uncomplicated recovery.

The DeBakey VAD is a small (3.5-cm diameter and 76-mm length), axial-flow blood pump with a titanium alloy for total intracorporal implantation (Figure 1),¹ which has already been successfully implanted in a few patients.² Currently, our experience includes 3 patients.

View larger version (42K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 1. Multislice CT data set with 1-mm collimation in multiplanar reconstruction of pump system, which includes titanium pump with adjacent inlet cannula and connector for outflow graft. Wire to control unit can be seen (w). Pump itself consists of flow straightener (a), inducer/impeller (b), and diffuser (c). These components are fully embedded in a hermetically sealed titanium flow tube. Pump is driven by motor stator (m) contained in stator shell (ms). Inducer/impeller has 6 blades with 8 magnets hermetically sealed in each blade. Pump is attached to titanium inlet cannula that has to be placed into left ventricle. A graft has to be connected to pump outlet and anastomosed to aorta ascendens.

To assess the correct position of the system and the cannulas and to exclude thrombotic material in the unloaded left . . . [Full Text of this Article]