The man with no pulse....

[Dr Mordrid]

Story....

MONTREAL — A 65-year-old Quebec man who received a new long-term mechanical heart last month is being described as the only living Canadian without a pulse.

Dr. Renzo Cecere implanted the “Heartmate II” mechanical heart into Gerard Langevin in an three-hour operation Nov. 23.

Officials at the McGill University Health Centre say the device, which is about the size of a flashlight battery, could last up to 10 years.

That is longer than other models which are thought to be good for only two or three years.
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Thoratec site....

[Brian Ellis]

Ain't nature wonderful? We have evolved to have a self-contained heart that is an efficient pump for blood and gains its energy to do so from metabolic processes derived from the food we eat and the air we breathe. With all our prowess at miniaturisation, we produce a pump that is smaller than the heart, but requires an external controller and two battery packs that, together, are considerably more voluminous.

As far as I can see, the pump seems to use a principle possibly invented by a guy called Archimedes, 2,200 years ago!

I wonder what the long term effect on the arteries will be without a pulse? The arterial muscles in the tunica media will not be exercised; will they deteriorate, reducing the arterial elasticity, possibly creating the conditions for an aneurysm? Pure speculation on my part.

[az]

He'll probably rather take that risk than die now, I assume. He isn't the only one, though, since the Heartmate was tested on other people before.

[Dr Mordrid]

Ain't nature wonderful? We have evolved to have a self-contained heart that is an efficient pump for blood and gains its energy to do so from metabolic processes derived from the food we eat and the air we breathe. With all our prowess at miniaturisation, we produce a pump that is smaller than the heart, but requires an external controller and two battery packs that, together, are considerably more voluminous.

The earlier versions were so large as to be stationary. To get it this small in so short a time is amazing, and improved batteries or supercapacitors can only make it smaller. Maybe some day implantable.

[az]

Most certainly not supercapacitors. These still have FAR, FAR less capacity than batteries; they're just much faster to charge or decharge.

[Sasq]

Having lost my father at the age of 60 to a heart condition, this brings tears to my eyes.

I look forward to the day, when we all can have a miniture one, with lets say a battery good for a few hours. suffer a heart attack, pump kicks in until you can get to medical aid and a battery charger...

[Dr Mordrid]

Most certainly not supercapacitors. These still have FAR, FAR less capacity than batteries; they're just much faster to charge or decharge.

Not conventional supercapacitors, but nanotech ultracapacitors as discussed here by MIT;

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/batteries-0208.html

[schmosef]

so... he doesn't have a pulse because the new pump pushes blood continuously?

[az]

Yep.

[az]

Not conventional supercapacitors, but nanotech ultracapacitors as discussed here by MIT;

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/batteries-0208.html

They say these caps have the potential to reach battery storage levels, and refer to lithium ion batteries. A lithium ion battery couldn't power this pump for very long.

[Dr Mordrid]

What do you think are in those shoulder packs?

[az]

You wrote about making it implantable, which is what I was referring to.