Analisys of aortic flow in presence of intra aortic balloon pump using a coupled 3D-0D model of aorta and peripheries

The Intra Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP) is a mechanical support used for cardiovascular diseases: a balloon placed in the descending aorta inflates and deflates according to the cardiac cycle, so it produces hemodynamic modifications. Hence we carried out a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) study to analyze these changes. A lumped parameter model was adopted for the downstream domains. We focused our attention on what happens when the balloon is fully inflated and fully deflated. Computational results indicated that in systole the balloon produced little decrease in pressure (8%) and flow pattern (7%) compared to the baseline case. Instead, in diastole the IABP of 40 cm3 occludes the aorta for the 90%, so considerable mean increases of pressure (60%) and flow (62%) were observed in the CFD aorta model. Moreover, in all cases the Reynolds number confirmed the hypothesis of laminar flow.