Artificial Hearts: Going Beyond Human Evolution

ARTIFICIAL HEARTS: GOING BEYOND HUMAN EVOLUTIONJon 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/UnderstandingHeartFailure/Pages/Whatarethedifferenttypesofheartfailure.aspx

• http://www.medicotips.com/2010/06/died-of-hear-attack.html• http://

www.webmd.com/heart-disease/treating-left-ventricular-device• 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-beatless-heart-wave-future/story?id=13838596

• http://www.voanews.com/content/doctors-achieve-milestone-using-artificial-heart-with-no-beat-125085499/171541.html

• http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm