Heart
There's no denying that pacemakers are life-saving devices, but they do have their limitations. These include the facts that their metal leads can break, they need to be surgically accessed if their batteries run out, and they can be disrupted by strong magnetic fields. Some or all of these problems may one day become things of the past, however, due to research currently being conducted at New York's Stony Brook University - scientists there are working towards the development of pacemakers that control the heart through pulses of light. Read More
While implantable heart pumps may buy some time for people waiting to undergo heart transplants, such implants have at least one serious drawback – because they receive their power from an external source, a power cord must protrude through the skin of the patient’s belly. About 40 percent of patients experience infections of that opening, which often require rehospitalization, and in extreme cases can even cause death. The presence of that cord also makes it impossible for patients to swim or take baths. Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are attempting to put an end to the troublesome cords, however, by developing a system that wirelessly transmits power to heart pumps. Read More
When someone has a heart attack, the cells in the affected area of the heart die off, and the damage can’t be repaired. In the not-so-distant future, however, that may not be the case. Engineers from Rhode Island’s Brown University, working with colleagues in India, have created a carbon nanofiber patch that has been shown to regenerate heart cells. It is hoped that such patches could eventually be placed on the heart, like a Band-Aid, to regrow dead areas. Read More
When a patient has an arrhythmia (an irregular heartbeat), cardiologists will often treat the disorder by inserting two tube-like catheters into the patient’s heart. The first catheter is used for mapping out the heart tissue, identifying the location of cells that are causing the arrhythmia. The second catheter, which has an electrode on the end, is then directed to those locations, where it kills the aberrant cells in a process known as ablation. Scientists have recently developed a single catheter with added stretchable electronics, however, that does both jobs in one step. Read More
Despite ongoing advances in prevention techniques and monitoring systems, heart disease remains the world’s leading cause of death. A study from the University of Michigan (U-M) Cardiovascular Center has looked to the past for a future remedy in a study that examines the legality and basic logistics of recycling pacemakers after they have been removed from a deceased person. Read More
Kryptonite superglue reduces open chest surgery recovery time
Stories about Kryptonite are sure to pique interest, and this one has both a "super" and a scientific angle. Canadian researchers are using a super glue called Kryptonite to create a stronger closure of the breastbone for heart patients after open chest surgery. This means faster recovery time, fewer complications and less post-operative pain. Read More
Technology is delivering a array of health monitoring systems that can record a person’s blood pressure or perform an ECG on the go. Now researchers have turned their attention to monitoring cardiac pressure, an indicator of heart problems that can normally only be measured using an invasive procedure known as a coronary angiography. Read More
Scientists at the University of Bonn have brought new meaning to the phrase "light-hearted" with the discovery of a way to cause arrhythmia in the heart cells of mice using only blue light and a sensor in the cell wall. They hope it could be used to research the development of arrhythmia, one of the commonest causes of death after a heart attack. Read More
Heart disease remains one the biggest killers in the Western world. When a heart attack or heart failure occurs, permanent damage often results, destroying live cells and leaving the patient with irreversible scarring. Now scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have discovered a new technique to create healthy beating heart cells from structural cells, opening up the possibility of regenerating damaged hearts. Read More
Although medical advances over recent years have seen the majority of people surviving heart attacks, the damage done to the heart muscle is irreversible. As a result, most patients eventually succumb to congestive heart failure, the most common cause of death in developed countries. Stem cells offer hope for achieving what the human body can’t do: mending broken hearts. Now researchers have built a scaffold that supports the growth and integration of stem cell-derived cardiac muscles cells. The scaffold supports the growth of cardiac cells in the lab and encourages blood vessel growth in living animals. Read More
