DMD2020-9017

"Design and Implementation of a Balloon Catheter Pressure Testing System" DMD2020-9017
Aaron Tucker, Breanne Retherford, Paul Rothweiler, Ahmed Selim and Art Erdman, University of Minnesota

Abstract: Medical device companies that aim to sell catheters with pressure sensing elements need a way to test their systems before packaging their product. An example of one of these products is an Intra-aortic Balloon Pump (IABP) which provides mechanical pumping assistance to a patient experiencing cardiogenic shock. To test these devices, companies will place the assembly in controlled pressure chamber to test the response to pressure changes. However commercially available systems are cost prohibitive. The Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center needs a way to test custom designed balloon catheters. As a result, a low-cost, pneumatic catheter test chamber was designed and built to provide a benchtop platform for testing. In order to control the chamber pressure, the system utilizes feedback control with an Arduino control module. Since pneumatic systems exhibit nonlinear behavior, a novel control method was used to implement feedback control and simulate the pressure profile experienced in the human body.