An Artificial Heart That Doesn't Beat

Comments

• Best of Both Worlds wdilwort on 09/21/2006 at 3:04 PM

  Posts: 1

  I would agree that the axial pump is the most reliable but could they not put a feed-back circuit from the output of the pump back to the imput of he pump.  In this "pipe" insert a valve that would close say 60 time a minute.  When the valve is closed blood would be forced through the body and when it is open blood would take the bypass back to the inpt of the pump.  The pump would stay very reliable and the body would see a pulsed blood flow. The value would be controled by a circuit with a default setting of say 60 pulses a minute.  This could be over road by a senser monitoring the lungs rate or even a oxygen sensor in the bood stream.   Well, I guess I just made it more complicated and thus more problem prone to problems but it seems like a simple way of getting the best of both worlds. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• EMT scare deirdrebeth on 09/25/2006 at 1:45 PM

  Posts: 25

  I am very impressed with the research on this, and will look forward to reading more on the extended trials...but before this is ever implanted in someone who is going to walk out of the hospital there has to be some way to permanently "mark" the patient as having no pulse.  Can you image what would happen if an EMT (or insert-medical-personel-here) came across an unconscious patient with no pulse... Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • Re: EMT scare kitk on 09/27/2006 at 12:57 AM

    Posts: 50 Avg Rating:

    I recall the early days of such turbo pumps--then imagined largely as booster for weak hearts. My one worry,,, well, one of them,,, is that not much study is reported on what the turbo blades do to blood cells. Current heart bypass pumps are not used for long periods in part because of damage they do to fragile blood cells--in other words, our hearts are made this way for a reason.   Also, the heart is more than a dumb pump. It produces regulatory chemicals, it is an organ just like any other, with multiple functions. I would advise some research into the hearts--aortic arches--of insects. They are like stacked simple pumps, and seem mechanically simple. If an artificial version could be fitted into a failing human heart, leaving most of the human heart, it could possibly perform all needed functions. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• concerns and ideas praxius on 05/08/2007 at 2:57 PM

  Posts: 1

  I've done thought experiments of pulseless blood-flow using nanobots, and utilizing their swarm nature -- swimming like a school of fish carrying blood with them; of course these devices don't exist yet, but give it about 15 years. From this it was my feeling that a pulseless flow of blood would not keep blood vessels elastic, making them more susceptible to damage. And getting fluid between the cells would prove more difficult without an extra bit of force to "get in there". Would that contribute to clogging of an already inefficient lymphatic system? Why not build into the device a "fluid capacitor" that builds a little pressure in a balloon-like structure then discharges for the pulse effect? Blood would continuously flow but an extra "push" every 5 to 10 seconds or so would emulate the heart beat giving the body the desired effects of a pulse. John Rate this comment: (Reply)

• Chemical Response aldebaralph on 06/12/2007 at 10:44 AM

  Posts: 1 Avg Rating:

  I`m not a doctor, or someone with vast knowledge in the theme, but I think it`s clearly important to consider the role of chemistry in this problem. while every labotarory is concerned about the physcis part, refering to replace a "pump" no one is considering that this "pump" doesn`t only obey to mechanical/physical stimulation, such as running, they are ignoring situations of danger, imagine someone who is in mortal danger, and his body starts producing adrenaline, the natural heats respond to this stimule, pumping faster the blood, but how can an artificial heart, axial, nanobots, or any artificial heart designed until today would respond to this if this artifial doesnt respond to this stimulation? And the thing is, how this is going to affect the patient in his response to the situation? Rate this comment: (Reply)