Flexible Pressure Sensor Inside Cardiovascular: A Pilot Study On the 3D Printed Artificial Heart System

The detection and prevention of cardiovascular disorders depend on the ability to measure the condition of blood flow in blood vessels. The majority of the current sensors that measure the pressure inside vessels were stents or rigid catheters, both of which were dangerous for the human body as they may cause vascular damage and infection. This paper proposed a flexible conductive polydimethylsiloxane-multiwall carbon nanotube (PMWCNT) piezoresistive pressure sensor and combines it with a low-cost, high-reliability, flexible device packaging technique. The resulting flexible sensor may successfully address the aforementioned issues by measuring the fluid pressure inside the vascular system in a full liquid immersion scenario. The sensing element had high mechanical stability after 2700 cycles of pressure testing, a sensitivity of up to 26.84 kPa
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in the measuring range, a maximum hysteresis of 4.5%0, a quick response time down to 200 ms. We tested the device in a custom-made 3D printed artificial heart system, and the results demonstrated that the proposed flexible pressure sensor can precisely and successfully measure dynamic pressure inside cardiovascular system.