Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.3390/bioengineering13101104

Publication Title

Bioengineering

Volume

13

Issue

10

Pages

1104 (25 pp.)

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of death worldwide, creating a need for reliable hemodynamic testing platforms for cardiovascular device evaluation and therapeutic development. Mock circulatory loops (MCLs) provide effective in vitro platforms for reproducing physiological and pathological pressure conditions; however, many existing systems remain limited in programmability, waveform fidelity, standardization, and affordability. This study presents a cost-effective dual-pump hybrid MCL (hMCL) that independently regulates baseline and pulsatile pressure components using Fourier-based harmonic synthesis. Reference arterial pressure waveforms were decomposed into harmonic components, and their amplitudes, frequencies, and phase shifts were converted into pulse-width-modulation signals for dual-pump actuation. Validation using five physiological and virtual arterial pressure waveform datasets demonstrated MAP errors of ≤1.3%, RMSE values of 9.1–24.1 mmHg, and feature errors ≤ 2.8% for systolic, diastolic, and dicrotic notch pressures. Distribution analysis showed small median pressure differences and low variability across waveform characteristics, while repeated hMCL operation demonstrated pressure variations below 3 mmHg. These findings demonstrate that the proposed Fourier-based hMCL provides an accurate, reproducible, and cost-effective platform for arterial pressure waveform reproduction and early-stage cardiovascular device testing. The present validation is pressure-focused; flow waveform fidelity and pressure–flow interactions were not independently characterized.

Rights

© 2026 by the authors.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

Data Availability

Article states: "The data presented in this study are derived from publicly available resources, including the PhysioNet CHARIS Database (DOI: 10.13026/C24G6F), the MIMIC-III Waveform Database (DOI: 10.13026/C2294B), the FDA Mock Circulatory Loop Database (DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2023.106979), and the King’s College London Haemodynamics Database (http://haemod.uk/original, accessed on 15 September 2026). A representative dataset sufficient to reproduce the principal findings of this study has been provided to the publisher and is available with the published article. Additional processed data, MATLAB/Simulink models, Arduino control code, and supporting materials are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request."

Original Publication Citation

Tsui, V. K., Tavakolian, K., & Ewert, D. (2026). A low-cost Fourier-based dual-pump mock circulatory loop for arterial pressure waveform reproduction. Bioengineering, 13(10), Article 1104. https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering13101104

ORCID

0000-0001-5785-358X (Tavakolian)

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