Patent ID: 7645225

Claim:
A cardiac assist apparatus comprising: a blood pump; a drive unit that drives the blood pump; a power supply that supplies power to the drive unit; a frequency sensor that senses a rotational speed of the blood pump; a current sensor that senses an average direct current waveform of the drive unit; a power supply voltage sensor that senses a power supply voltage; and a blood pump controller that; (i) receives data from the frequency sensor, current sensor, and the power supply voltage sensor; (ii) passively determines, from said data, a physiologic status of a patient without affecting one or more of the following: the pump's performance and the patient's physiology, the patient's physiologic status comprising one or more of the following: a drive unit input power for determination of pump flow rate; a heart rate; a pump flow rate; and, a pressure differential; and (iii) calculates a target flow based on the physiologic status; and (iv) automatically adjusts the blood pump to the target flow.