Flow-induced platelet activation in components of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation circuit

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used for rescue in severe respiratory and/or circulatory failure. The patient’s blood is pumped over artificial surfaces in the ECMO circuit. A platelet activation model was applied to study the potential thrombogenicity of ECMO circuit components: the centrifugal blood pump, cannulae, and tubing connectors. Based on the accumulated effect of the scalar form of the stress acting on the platelet over time, the activation model enables assessment of platelet activation and pinpoints regions of elevated activation risk in a component. Numerical simulations of the flow in different components of the ECMO circuit was carried out where the activation level is a function of the impact of local stress and its history along the path that the platelets follow. The results showed that the pump carried the largest risk for platelet activation followed by the reinfusion cannula and lastly the connectors. Pump thrombogenicity was mainly due to long residence time and high shear-rate while the connector showed a high level of non-stationary shear-rate that in turn may contribute to the formation of aggregates through direct platelet activation or through high shear-rate modulation of the vWF multimers.