Patients with continuous flow ventricular assist devices (CF‐VADs) are at high risk for non‐surgical bleeding, speculated to associate with the loss of pulsatility following CF‐VAD placement. It has been hypothesized that continuous shear stress causes elongation and increased enzymatic degradation of von Willebrand Factor (vWF), a key player in thrombus formation at sites of vascular damage. However, the role of loss of pulsatility on the unravelling behavior of vWF has not been widely explored.
vWF molecules were immobilized on the surface of microfluidic devices and subjected to various pulsatile flow profiles, including continuous flow and pulsatile flow of different magnitudes,
Unravelling of vWF (total sample size
Pulsatile flow reduces unfolding of vWF compared to continuous flow and a lower pulse frequency of 20 pulses/minute yielded comparable vWF unfolding to 60 pulses/minute. These findings could shed light on non‐surgical bleeding associated with the loss of pulsatility following CF‐VAD placement.