The document contains summaries of four sources that discuss total artificial hearts and their use as alternatives to heart transplants. The first source discusses a case study of a patient who underwent strength and endurance training while supported by a total artificial heart. The patient experienced increased oxygen consumption and improved recovery after exercise, demonstrating the benefits of peripheral adaptations. The second source summarizes studies on the SynCardia total artificial heart, the only FDA-approved artificial heart. It is pneumatically powered and has been successfully implanted in over 1,100 patients as a bridge to heart transplantation. Research aims to develop a smaller pediatric version. The third source examines platelet reactivity, fluid dynamics, and modeling of the SynCardia artificial

1. Annotated Bibliographies
Agostoni P, Bellotto F, Compostella L,Feltrin G,Gambino A,Gerosa G, , Russo N,Setzu T ,
Tarzia V,Torregrossa G. 2011. Peripheral Adaptation Mechanisms in Physical Training
and Cardiac Rehabilitation: The Case of a Patient Supported by a Cardiowest Total
Artificial Heart. Journal of Cardiac Failure, 17(8):670–675.
The patient with an artificial heart underwent a comprehensive strength and
endurance-training program and was evaluated by repeated peak cardiopulmonary
exercise tests. The patient experienced an increase in oxygen consumption and an
improvement in recovery kinetics. The benefits of exercising in a person with heart
failure are due to peripheral and cardiac adaptations. To know the benefits of peripheral
adaptations they used this patient with an artificial heart, which enabled them to
separate the functions of the peripheral and cardiac adaptation. This article provides my
review paper with information about a patient and the benefits of the total artificial
heart. The discovery of the benefits of the artificial heart by isolating the peripheral
adaptations contributes to science because it has been proven that the artificial heart
help with the uptake of oxygen, which helps with the hemoglobin levels.
Alemu Y,Bluestein D, Einav S, Silva J, Slepian M, Smith R. 2013. The Syncardia™ total
artificial heart: in vivo, in vitro, and computational modeling studies. Journal of
Biomechanics 46(2):266-275.
The SynCardia total artificial heart (TAH) is the only artificial heart approved by the
FDA. This TAH is pneumatically driven, which means that has air pumps. The SynCardia
is used for bridge to transplantation (BTT) in patients at imminent risk of death. Over
1,100 TAH has been successfully implanted to date. TAH has proven great efficiency
treating patients with acute irreversible heart failure. The future goal of the engineers
that designed the TAH is to develop a pediatric TAH, which will be used for the
treatment of children and small adults, that will be smaller but that works better than
the normal TAH. There are two of TAH, the AbioCor and the SynCardia. The AbioCor has
not been adopted by the clinical community, while the SynCardia has passed all the
clinical trials. The author explains and summarizes the active ongoing investigations
examining the thrombo-reactivity, flow characteristics and partial modeling of the TAH
including: (a) assessment of the degree of platelet reactivity induced by the present
clinical 70 cc TAH via a closed loop platelet activity state assay, (b) modeling of the
motion of the pulsatile mobile diaphragm, and (c) fluid-structure interactions and
assessment of the flow behavior through inflow and outflow regions of the TAH fitted
with modern bi-leaflet heart valves.
Copeland J, Copeland H, Covington D, Friedman M, Gustafson M, Mineburg N, Smith R.
2012. Experience with more than 100 total artificial heart implants.The Journal of
Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 143(3): 727–734.
Artifical heart is indicated in refractory heart failure patients as a bridge to
transplantation, a bridge to recovery, or as destination therapy, in alternative to
transplantation. The SynCardia total artificial heart has been used as a bridge to cardiac

2. transplantation, and has showed efficacy. There are some conditions, like morbidity,
that prevents the patient from receiving this kind of transplant. Results show that the
survival to transplantation is 69%. Also shows that the artificial heart can function up to
16 years. The artificial heart is transplanted into patients that do not qualify as
candidates for left ventricular assist devices. This article provides my review paper with
specific results, showing the advantages of artificial hearts.