cardiac
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Chicago biotech company 3D prints a mini human heart
The Chicago-based biotech company BIOLIFE4D announced today that it has successfully 3D-bioprinted a mini human heart. The tiny heart has the same structure as a full-sized heart, and the company says it's an important milestone in the push to create an artificial heart viable for transplant.
The next robot crawling through your gut could be a gummi bear
The future of robotics is decidedly squishy. We've already seen gel-based 'bots that can catch fish, mimic octopi and even ones that can keep your heart pumping. And, if the researchers from Switzerland's EPFL are successful, they could soon be crawling around in our intestines as well.
Stanford researchers make heart implant powered by radio waves, put batteries out of a job
Batteries used to be the only way to power implantable gadgets, but additional surgeries are needed to replace the power packs once their juice runs out -- a less-than-ideal solution for patients. Recent discoveries, however, have such medgadgets being powered by photons, hip hop and now high-frequency radio waves. Electrical engineers at Stanford built a cardiac device that uses a combination of inductive and radiative transmission of power, at about 1.7 billion cycles per second, to its coiled receiving antenna. Previous prevailing opinion held that the high frequencies needed for wireless power delivery couldn't penetrate the human body deep enough, and the lower frequencies that would do the trick require antennas too large to work as implants. That conundrum was solved by getting the high-frequency signals to penetrate deeper using alternating waves of electric and magnetic fields. That allowed a 10x increase in power delivery -- up to 50 microwatts to a millimeter radius antenna coil -- to an implant five centimeters below the skin. That antenna also was also designed to pull power regardless of its orientation, making it ideal for applications inside always-moving human bodies. Of course, the implant's really just a proof-of-concept at this stage, but hopefully it won't be long before battery powered implants go the way of the dodo TouchPad.
Researchers develop cell spray to repair hearts, healthy dose of electricity included
Spray-on solutions have found a place in green technology and even in transmitting radio waves, and they're no strangers to medical research, either. Researchers at the British Heart Foundation are working on a bioelectric spray composed of heart cells to help mend that most vital of organs. Because the cells need to be extremely thin to form a sheet of heart tissue, they are passed through a conductive needle that charges them with up to 30,000 volts. Exposing the cells to an electric field turns the solution into small droplets, which in turn form the cardiac sheet. The scientists can also add other types of cells to create "three-dimensional" tissue, which can be grafted onto injured hearts or sprayed onto scar tissue to help patients' tickers pump more strongly. As is so often the case, the next step will be testing the technology on animals, and the project's ultimate goal is to use this spray-on solution rather than making patients wait for donor hearts.
Fake jellyfish made from rat cells have a place in our hearts (video)
There's a whole sea of jellyfish out there ready to sting indiscriminately. So, why do we keep trying to make them? Scientists from Harvard and Caltech have a pretty good reason for creating fake jellies -- they hope to mend broken hearts by adapting their 'pumping' style of movement. Much like our own vital organ, the creatures are a mass of muscle adept at shifting fluid, meaning the research has several medical applications, such as bioengineered pacemakers for busted tickers. In creating the Medusoids, the team used a silicon scaffold coated in functional rat cardiac tissue, copying the muscle layout of a real jellyfish as best they could. When immersed in salt water and treated to bursts of current, the cells contract and cause the silicon sheet to move in a way eerily similar to the real thing. Next step for the team? An autonomous version that can move and potentially feed without their influence, of course. And, after seeing the little swimmers in action, we've certainly got palpitations. See what we mean after the break.
Monica's AN24 monitors unborn child's heart remotely
While Monica Healthcare's AN24 fetal / maternal electrophysiological monitor won't go down as the first device to take a pulse on one's heartbeat outside of the hospital, it is being dubbed the "world's first" device to allow "mother's-to-be to keep a regular check on their baby's heartbeat without having to go into the hospital and be attached to a machine." The pocket-sized device operates on battery power, weighs under 100-grams, and specializes in "non-intrusive passive monitoring." Moreover, it can detect and differentiate between the mother and the baby's signals, and can transmit real-time FHR / MHR analysis data to via Bluetooth or USB to any applicable handheld / PC. Notably, the AN24 has gone from "a research device into a medically approved product in only two years," and if the EU testing continues to go well, the company expects the device to hit the market in the October timeframe.[Via MedGadget]
HeartLander caterpillar robot crawls on heart, administers treatment
We get a little more creeped out each week or so, as a new form of minimally overtly invasive robotic creature somehow comes to life and sets its sights on perusing our innards. The newest species hails from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was designed to "crawl across the surface of the heart to deliver treatment." The eerily-dubbed "robotic caterpillar" measures just a few centimeters in length and can scoot about at a blistering 18-centimeters per minute via "push and pull" control wires that reside outside of the body. The lead doctor on the project suggests that the critter could "allow procedures to be carried out without having to stop the heart, reducing the risk of illness linked to heart bypass surgeries," and moreover, insinuated that patients would spend less time recovering in the hospital after he / she was all sewn up. Apparently, the HeartLander could be available for human practice "within three to four years," but according to a director at the British Heart Foundation, "a lot more research is needed to determine whether something delivered to the outside surface of the heart can modify activity on the inside."[Via BBC]
Battery-free pacemaker on the horizon
Having one surgery is plenty, and having some foreign object implanted in your being is really pushing things, but knowing you're going to be under the knife every ten years or so to get a new battery is just absurd. Thankfully, a group of researchers in the UK feel the same way, and are well on their way to developing a battery-free pacemaker. Reportedly, the device would use a microgenerator producing electricity every time the patient moves, effectively eliminating the need for an internal battery. The cost of the £1 million ($1.96 million) project is being shared by the Department of Trade and Industry and private companies, one being Zarlink Semiconductor who has a large role in the device's development. Other teams around the globe are also seeking to create such a unit, with ideas spanning from tiny generators that receive power from heat right onto "biological pacemakers" that would correct heart problems without the need for a mechanical device. While there's no estimate as to when these gizmos will even hit the testing and approval phase, it seems that things are moving along quite well, but we have to stop and wonder how well a pacemaker powered by motion will function when you, well, cease moving.[Via MedGadget]
HeartMate II: the pulse-free artificial heart
Since the FDA gave the big thumbs up to a fully implantable artificial heart earlier this month, cardiac surgeon "Bud" Frazier and his team at the Texas Heart Institute aren't wasting any time in developing what they hope will be a fully-functioning, pulse-free artificial heart. The "continuous flow pump" channels deoxygenated blood through the entire body on a non-stop basis, and over two years of testing in cattle, has resulted in lengthening the lives of the previously terminal cud chewers. Replacement hearts that are currently available are too large to fit into folks without "large chest cavities" (including most women), and due to the vast quantity of moving parts, aren't guaranteed to function for an extended period of time. Frazier's alternative, however, is about the size of "an adult thumb," consists of a single moving part (the rotor), and has been designed to keep the blood moving for ten or more years. The HeartMate II can even respond dynamically to the needs of the body, so more blood is circulated when busting a move, and less is pumped when kicking back for a soothing game of competitive relaxation. While the long-term consequences of living a pulseless life are still under debate, Frazier's group is hoping to move forward with development -- and apparently challenge medical personnel everywhere to find a new way to monitor those vital signs.
