You can live without a pulse
Artificial heart won't beatCNewsR&D based on Medical Xpress materials: A pulse no longer necessary for life
In people's minds, the pulse is one of the main signs of life.
However, American scientists have managed to develop a method that allows maintaining blood circulation in the body without the usual heartbeat.
Researchers around the world spend a huge amount of effort to develop an ideal artificial heart that would not fail, would not wear out, would not cause the formation of blood clots and would not increase the risk of infection. It seems that Doctors Billy Cohn and Bud Frazier from the Texas Institute of Health managed to solve this problem. However, the peculiarity of their brainchild is that it completely does not correspond to traditional ideas about the heart. It does not "beat", and its work, accordingly, does not cause pulsation of blood vessels.
The development is based on a technology used for heart failure since the 80s. The auxiliary ventricular system (VAD) is usually used to maintain the operation of one of the ventricles of the heart. This system includes a rotor with blades that rotates, creating a continuous flow of blood.
In order to ensure the functioning of two circulatory circles, usually supported by the right and left halves of the heart, the researchers connected two auxiliary ventricular systems and tested the resulting device on calves. To date, they have an 8-month-old animal in their care, whose heart was surgically replaced with the described two-rotor pump. The calf looks perfectly healthy and leads an active lifestyle.
After testing on 38 calves, the developers went further and offered implantation of the device to 55-year-old Craig Lewis, who was dying of amyloidosis. The heart of this patient was so badly damaged that, according to doctors, he had only 12 hours to live. Lewis and his wife agreed to the operation, which gave him another month of life, after which he died due to damage to other vital organs.
According to the developers, despite the obvious success, they still have a lot of work to do before the introduction of a new artificial heart into clinical practice. It is necessary to decide on the final design of the device, find the manufacturer and apply for official approval to the US Food and Drug Administration.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru17.06.2011