Advanced end-stage-heart failure is a serious condition with a high rate of death and hospitalization. Until the last couple of years, heart transplantation has been the single option of treatment. A limited supply of organs challenges heart transplantation, so implantation of a mechanical pump, i.e., a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), has become a life-saving option to bridge patients to transplantation or serve life-long permanent support.

Implantation of a medical device (i.e., a biomaterial) into human tissue is inevitably associated with inflammatory and thrombotic reactions against the non-self component, and the LVAD is a biomaterial prone to activate thromboinflammation; thromboembolism and bleeding are among the frequent and severe complications to LVAD-treatment. Here, we aim to address early thromboinflammatory complications in patients subjected to LVAD-implantation. Early identification of both thrombus, bleeding, and inflammation after device implantation is of high clinical value.

The objective is to study these events in two separate arms:

1. In a clinical study to evaluate the acute thrombotic and inflammatory response in patients subjected to LVAD-implantation.
2. In an ex vivo experimental model, target central components of the innate immune system to lower the thromboinflammatory response.