Patent ID: 11931563
Assignee: CARDIOVOL, LLC
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A

Claim 4:
5. A method for treating a heart of a patient comprising the steps of:
assisting the pumping of blood in the heart with a cardiac assist device implanted into the patient, the cardiac assist device has a shaft that is adapted to be positioned in the heart, the cardiac assist device includes a pump including a motor and an impeller disposed in the shaft which is driven by the motor to assist the heart with pumping blood, the pump draws blood from a left ventricle of the heart through an inlet port of the shaft and expels blood into an ascending aorta of the heart through an outlet port of the shaft, thereby reducing some mechanical load on the heart and promoting recovery; and
obtaining diagnostic information about the heart as a function of native cardiac output (CO) from an implanted sensor in communication with the heart while the implanted cardiac assist device is in operation in the patient assisting the pumping of blood in the patient, the sensor having a computer, the computer having a signal generator for generating source signals, sensor includes electrodes directly attached to the cardiac assist device producing the source signals for directly measuring only a native volume of the heart, and the electrodes are in direct contact with the shaft that is positioned in the heart using only admittance-based measurements, the computer performing data acquisition and analysis of the source signals, the computer in communication with the electrodes, the source signals include electrical currents having a frequency, the computer measuring corresponding voltages to make admittance-based measurements and analyzing the admittance-based measurements to make real-time admittance-based volume measurements of the heart and measuring native volume of the heart.