The wait for a heart transplant can be lengthy, ranging from months to over a year. Some people will never be able to receive the transplant they require.
However, researchers believe they have developed an artificial heart solution: a titanium, pumpless device with spinning magnets that resembles nothing like a real heart.
The issue: Heart failure affects more than six million people in the United States each year, and treatment choices are limited. Medication can help, but for some people, a heart transplant is required to complete their recovery. Still, donor hearts remain in short supply. The number of people in need of a heart significantly outnumbers the supply. Donor hearts also don't come in one size fits all. The blood type and size must be perfect.
“If these patients can rise from their hospital beds, hug their family members, and continue their lives for many years to come, we’ll have taken a great step forward in the long quest for a total artificial heart.” - Daniel Timms
There is now only one type of authorized artificial heart available in the United States. The SynCardia-made organ is far from flawless. To pump the synthetic heart, patients must carry a backpack-mounted air compressor. It's inconvenient and just meant to buy time while the patient awaits a real heart from a donor, according to MIT Technology Review.
As a result, experts are working to develop a better, more long-term remedy. Making a long-lasting heart, on the other hand, is a difficult task. Hearts beat 35 million times every year on average. You can think that a mechanical device pounding at such a high frequency would wear out rapidly, and most mechanical hearts do.
A fresh approach: Most artificial heart designs contain a mechanical pump and chambers to increase blood flow. Instead of attempting to recreate a natural heart with a mechanical heart, BiVACOR proposes that the heart be reinvented.
Instead of utilizing pumps, they are developing an artificial heart that pumps blood using spinning disks. The spinning pump, made of titanium and fueled by external batteries, levitates between magnets, preventing mechanical wear and tear.
Daniel Timms, BiVACOR Inc.'s chief executive officer, was inspired by his father, a plumber who died of a heart attack in 2001. When Timms realized there weren't enough donor hearts, he began creating his own artificial heart, utilizing 3D printed parts and plumbing, according to Science Focus.
"We didn't have the money to undertake things like animal research; they were simply too expensive." So my father and I created a circulatory system that mimicked the human body," Timms explained to Science Focus.
"All we had to do was go to Bunnings, Australia's largest hardware store, and establish a circulation loop to determine if it was supplying good flow and pressure to the various regions of the artificial body we built." From there, we fine-tuned the gadgets."
A new ray of hope: Artificial hearts currently only survive approximately 130 days (though a few lucky ones have lasted longer than 4.5 years), but BiVACOR claims to endure up to ten years. The business tried it on a cow, which lasted for 90 days and was healthy enough to exercise on a treadmill. The heart has also been briefly implanted in patients prior to receiving a heart transplant.
BiVACOR is getting ready to start its first human trials after receiving $22 million in funding. Patients may no longer have to wait and hope for a donor heart to become available if human studies are successful.
Timms and his colleagues stated in IEEE Spectrum, "We are already envisioning these initial human trials." "Patients with terminal illnesses will enter the operating room with failing biological hearts beating feebly in their chests and emerge with BiVACOR artificial hearts churning away... We'll have made a huge stride forward in the lengthy search for a total artificial heart if these patients can get out of their hospital beds, hug their loved ones, and enjoy full lives for many years to come." - Fuscoferu, MegaFlash XYZ
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