Artificial Hearts?

[rht7w]

Saw a little bit about the Abiocor replacement heart in the news and as an engineer-turned-medical student, I definitely want to learn more.

Anyone know which institutions (besides Louisville) are working on building an artificial heart? Anything you can tell me about such a project would be awesome - who's doing it and where, is it feasible, where to read more (books, journals, etc.), that sort of thing. Thanks so much........

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[bustbones26]

You know I think many people are trying to work on an artificial heart. I myself am an engineer turned doctor.

AT the University of Pittsburgh, their bioengineering department offers a special masters degree program for people that are in medical school in cardiovascular dynamics.

EVen in undergrad I was given the cahnce to take courses in cardiovascular dynamics, hemodynamics, artificial organs, etc. etc.

AT U Pitt the engineers do tons of research with the medical school!! The biggest thing that sparked my interest was the artifical lung they are working on.

Anyways, U Pitt is a place to learn all of this stuff and jump on the research bandwagon. They offer Ph.D/MD programs, I didn't have th eenduracne to do this program, but in my future, I might pick this stuff up again.

 

[MacGyver]

Artificial hearts have a LONG way to go before they are of really any use.

Right now, they are basically a 200k device for extending your life maybe a few weeks at most.

I dont see any point in the future in which a true artificial heart will serve as a replacement.

I think the much more attractive future of heart replacement is tissue engineering.

Building a mechanical scaffold and then stimulating stem cells to develop into myocytes, forming heart chambers around the scaffold is the future.

Clunky mechanical devices will largely remain a curiosity and nothing more.

 

[Been there]

The last commerical product was the Jarvik 7. As I can remember, it did not do very well. The product is no longer called Jarvik 7; because, another company owns it. Don't know if there is any real role for another such product anymore. Since the failure of the Jarvik 7, cardiac transplant has improved significantly. Also the new Left Ventricular Assist Device (L-VAD)are now smaller and better. The real future would be xeno-transplants or tissue engineered hearts. The most promising bridge to transplant seem to be the L-VAD called Jarvik 2000. It is being worked on by the Texas Heart gourp (the Colley's and Debakey's clan). It is owned by Jarvik INC (it is not a publicly traded company). Inside sources in the cardiac surgery thinks, it will be FDA approve in a year or so, as a bridge to transplant and/or any class IV heart failure patients. The size of the Jarvik 2000 is about the size of two C batteries.

 

[Dr.alfa]

1) Jarvic 7 failed. Period

2) Cardiac tranplantation HAS improved dramatically over the last 10 years however there is a significant decline in donors. Thats where the problem is.

3) Abiocor is a really wonderfull device. FDA said that it would mark the abiocor study sucessful if the mean survival was 60 days (!!). Tom Christerson (i think) survived for 517 days with his artificial heart....

4) LVADs are here to stay. The ventricular assist devices are a new era. I am certain that in 10-15 years you (and i) will see people with LVADs and TAH (total artificial hearts) in our everday practice. The demand for ventricular assist devices is huge and growing. Industry is spending huge amounts of $$ for developing LVADs and TAH. Problems are getting fixed all the time (now inflow/outflow kinking and graft failure is nearly 0%, diaphragm failure is ruled out, clever titanium coating of the blood contacting surfaces require now NO anticuagulation exept ASA perhaps, transqutanious energy transfer technology (TET) will reduce sepsis etc etc ). Abiomed (currently selling its best seller BVS5000) is developing an TAH 50 % smaller than the current model (have seen it in calves). Transcutaneous energy transfer will rule out sepsis (together with experience in inplanting the device).

5) most promicing is magdi yacoubs study, claiming that patients with dilated cardiomyopathy CAN recover after implanting an LVAD for 6 years (no need to state that people (which are young ppl) with dilated cardiomyopathy are currently doomed)

6)with current tech (and after ruling out sepsis which is a technical-subjective matter, and bearing in mind the new develpoments one can expect a 40-50% 3-4year survival (for a device that will be implanted today). Statistic are worse now because a new development will show its results in 3 years. Now stats are reflecting previous devices-previous technology

7) Bear in mind that the abiocor study was conducted in patiens that were not candicated for transplant and had a 70-80% of death in the next 10 days ( i think). Many of them have end organ failure (afterall heart failure is a systematic disease). Once enrollment criteria will become more loose (and real) survival rate will lift off)

8) Xeno transpantations has a really really really really long way. Nature keeps its secrets well hidden. Problems like immunosuppression, graft immunology, retroviruses, different enviroment (blood hormones, lipid concentration, standing posotion , temperature) are setback for xenotransplantion. However progress is being made in this field too.

9) once again i would like to say to everyone that LVADs and TAH are here to stay and in 10 years i guarranty that you all will see ppl with these devices (small miracles actually) everyday.