SBIR-STTR Award

Magnetic Levitation Motor for Pediatric Cardiac and Cardiopulmonary Therapies
Award last edited on: 5/25/2022

Sponsored Program
STTR
Awarding Agency
NIH : NHLBI
Total Award Amount
$1,808,380
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
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Principal Investigator
Patrick T Cahalan

Company Information

Ension Inc (AKA: Cardiopulmonary Technologies Inc)

240 William Pitt Way
Pittsburgh, PA 15238
   (412) 828-5209
   info@ension.com
   www.ension.com

Research Institution

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Phase I

Contract Number: 1R41HL134455-01
Start Date: 8/15/2016    Completed: 7/31/2017
Phase I year
2016
Phase I Amount
$356,976
This Phase I STTR application proposes development of an innovative, low cost, magnetic levitation motor specifically designed for pediatric extracorporeal cardiac and cardiopulmonary therapies. Magnetic levitation enables contact-free impeller operation thereby eliminating critical areas of wear and heat generation that can contribute to hemolysis and thrombosis. The extracorporeal pediatric market is currently served by a single magnetically levitated blood pump (St. Jude Medical's PediMag (formerly Thoratec)). As with many pediatric medical products, the PediMag is a scaled-down version of a prior adult device originally designed for post- cardiotomy support (CentriMag). While PediMag has been used successfully in a range of post-cardiotomy support applications, broader usage is complicated by several factors including lack of ancillary componentry designed specifically for the pump system (e.g., pediatric blood oxygenator and heat exchanger), complex control algorithms, and a high disposable cost (approximately $8000 per disposable PediMag pump head). To address these shortcomings, we propose an innovative magnetic levitation system based on a hysteresis motor concept that permits a smaller overall configuration, eliminates magnetic field safety concerns, reduces vibration, and relocates the costly rare earth magnetic elements from the disposable blood-contacting component to the reusable motor stator. The hysteresis motor design also permits simplified control algorithms for enhanced robustness and reduced power requirements enhancing patient transport and mobility. The rotor/impeller portion of the proposed hysteresis motor will be based on the same impeller geometry as is currently used in the existing pCAS pump-oxygenator replacing the current mechanical bearings, rotating shaft, and blood contacting seal. This strategy will lower overall development costs and permit the use of existing comprehensive in vitro and in vivo test data to allow direct and efficient comparison of the performance of the new magnetically levitated prototype to the existing blood seal-based pCAS pump- oxygenator. In Phase I, we will perform two acute and one 3-day chronic animal study. This permits us to demonstrate basic feasibility while simultaneously minimizing costs and the Phase I project timeline. However, as part of a subsequent Phase II effort we plan to significantly expand our chronic in vivo studies to include multiple evaluations of at least 30 days. !

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Narrative Many pediatric medical products are simply scaled-down versions of adult products. Currently, the only magnetically levitated blood pump available for pediatric support is similarly a scaled-down version of its adult counterpart. This project intends to develop improved technology specifically for the pediatric cardiac and cardiopulmonary life support patient populations and test it using an integrated pump-oxygenator.

Project Terms:
abstracting; Acute; Address; Adult; Algorithms; Animals; Area; base; Blood; Blood Cells; blood oxygenator; blood pump; Cardiac; Cardiopulmonary; cell injury; Characteristics; Childhood; Chronic; Complex; cost; cost efficient; Data; Data Set; design; Development; Devices; Elements; Evaluation; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation; Generations; Geometry; Goals; Head; heat exchanger; Heating; hemodynamics; Hemolysis; improved; In Vitro; in vitro testing; in vivo; Indium; innovation; Life; magnetic field; Magnetism; Marketing; Mechanics; Medical; Modeling; Motor; novel; operation; Oxygenators; patient population; Patients; pediatric patients; Performance; Phase; prototype; Pump; Safety; Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital; seal; Shapes; Small Business Technology Transfer Research; Steel; Structure; Support System; Suspension substance; Suspensions; System; Technology; Testing; Thrombosis; Time; TimeLine; vibration

Phase II

Contract Number: 2R42HL134455-04
Start Date: 8/15/2016    Completed: 5/31/2022
Phase II year
2020
(last award dollars: 2021)
Phase II Amount
$1,451,404

This Phase II STTR application represents the main research and development effort for an innovative, low cost, magnetic levitation motor specifically designed for neonatal and pediatric extracorporeal cardiac and cardiopulmonary therapies. Our Phase I efforts demonstrated feasibility of a novel magnetic levitation motor enabling contact-free blood pump impeller operation. Contact-free operation eliminates critical areas of wear as well as reduces heat generation that can contribute to hemolysis and thrombosis. The extracorporeal pediatric market is currently served by a single magnetically levitated blood pump (Abbott PediMag). As with many neonatal and pediatric medical products, the PediMag is a scaled-down version of an adult blood pump that was designed for post-cardiotomy support (Abbott CentriMag). While PediMag has been used successfully in a range of post-cardiotomy support applications, broader usage is limited by several factors including lack of ancillary componentry designed specifically for the pump system (e.g., pediatric blood oxygenator and heat exchanger), complex control algorithms, and a high disposable cost (approximately $8000 per disposable PediMag pump head). To address these shortcomings, we developed an innovative and simplified magnetic levitation motor that eliminates the costly rare earth magnetic elements from the disposable blood-contacting component to the reusable motor stator. Our magnetic levitation motor design also permits simplified control algorithms for improved robustness and reduced power requirements. The levitation motor uses the same impeller and pump housing geometry as currently integrated in Ension’s pediatric cardiopulmonary assist system’s (pCAS) pump-oxygenator and replaces the mechanical bearings, rotating shaft, and blood contacting seal. Our strategy to retain the current pCAS pump geometry both lowers overall development costs and permits the use of existing comprehensive in vitro and in vivo test data for performance comparisons. In Phase I, we completed two acute and one 3-day chronic animal study that demonstrated Phase I feasibility and confirmed a Phase II effort is warranted. Goals in Phase II include motor and controller optimization, expansion of a risk-based design history file (DHF) consistent with FDA’s Quality System Regulation (QSR), and conduct of a range of performance testing to establish safety and reliability. Phase III commercialization activities will include a transfer to manufacturing and verification and validation testing to support a regulatory filing to support clinical trials in pediatric patients with cardiac and/or cardiopulmonary dysfunction.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Narrative Many pediatric medical products are scaled-down versions of adult products. For example, the only magnetically levitated blood pump available for pediatric circulatory support is a scaled-down version of its adult counterpart. This project intends to develop an improved magnetically levitated blood pump designed specifically for the pediatric cardiac and cardiopulmonary life support in neonatal and pediatric patient populations.

Project Terms:
Acute; Address; Adult; Algorithms; Amplifiers; Animals; Area; Automobile Driving; base; biomaterial compatibility; Blood; blood oxygenator; Blood Platelets; blood pump; Boston; Cardiac; Cardiopulmonary; Characteristics; Childhood; Chronic; Clinical Trials; commercialization; Complex; Consumption; cost; Data; design; Development; Documentation; Electromagnetics; Elements; Evaluation; Functional disorder; Future; Generations; Geometry; Goals; Head; heat exchanger; hemodynamics; Hemolysis; Housing; improved; In Vitro; in vitro testing; in vivo; in vivo evaluation; Individual; innovation; instrument; Leukocytes; Life; Magnetism; manufacturability; Mechanics; Medical; Modeling; Motor; motor control; Neonatal; neonatal patient; novel; operation; Oxygenators; patient population; Pediatric Hospitals; pediatric patients; Performance; performance tests; Phase; phase 1 designs; Planet Earth; Production; Protocols documentation; prototype; Publishing; Pump; Readiness; Recording of previous events; Regulation; research and development; Risk; Rotation; Safety; seal; sensor; Slice; Small Business Technology Transfer Research; Steel; Support System; Surgeon; Suspensions; System; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Therapeutic; Thrombosis; verification and validation; Work