ARTIFICIAL HEARTS:
GOING BEYOND HUMAN
EVOLUTION
Jon Goldberg
Functionality of the Heart
• Maintains flow of blood throughout body
• Supplies nutrients and oxygen
• Waste transport
• Pumps via muscle contraction + relaxation to “push” blood
Diagram of the Heart
Problems to Solve
• Heart Failure
• Systolic Dysfunction
• Heart does not contract with enough force; less oxygen-rich blood.
• Diastolic Dysfunction
• Heart contracts, but ventricles do not relax/are stiff; less blood enters
the heart.
How to Solve
• Complete heart replacement
• Mimic “pumping action” of natural hearts
• Big and bulky. Mechanical pumping is hard to pull off.
• Requires a lot of equipment.
• Heart assistance
• VAD (Ventricular Assistance Device )
• Left and/or right ventricular assistance.
The LVAD
The Pros of the LVAD
• Extremely portable.
• Relieves stress on heart. Allows it to perform some
repairs.
• “Continuously Flowing” requires no pumping.
The Cons
• Requires blood thinners to use.
• Unplanned hospital readmission
• Infections
• Device malfunction
• Little full-heart-replacement testing
The Full Replacement Story
• Young Central-African man receives a LVAD in response
to heart failure.
• Goes missing for 8 months.
• Comes back, heart has failed. Has been living the past
months with nothing but the LVAD.
The Full Replacement Story Cont.
• Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier push the LVAD to full
replacement.
• Takes 38 calves’ hearts out.
The Future
• Full heart replacement looks promising.
• Needs more testing + enhancements
• 600,000 people die each year due to heart failure.
• Dr. Cohn and Dr. Frazier are pushing the Heartmate II.
• More experimentation with the Archimedes’ Screw design.
• Less “mimicking” of natural pumping, more experimenting with
human innovation.
References
• http://www.medicinenet.com/heart_failure/page3.htm
• http://www.heartfailurematters.org/EN/UnderstandingHeartFailu
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re/Pages/Whatarethedifferenttypesofheartfailure.aspx
http://www.medicotips.com/2010/06/died-of-hear-attack.html
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/treating-left-ventriculardevice
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/vad/
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/tah/
http://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleid=1204944
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/texas-man-pioneers-beatlessheart-wave-future/story?id=13838596
http://www.voanews.com/content/doctors-achieve-milestoneusing-artificial-heart-with-no-beat-125085499/171541.html
http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm