“My heart will go on, and on..” I can hear Celine Dion
now. And soon, your heart may be able to go on and on as well, thanks to
a revolutionary electronic membrane designed to keep your heart rate beating
perfectly. The membrane is made from a thin, circuit-lined stretchable
material that has been developed at the University of Illinois and Washington
University by scientists. This technology may be available for human
hearts in 10 to 15 years.
At this point, only rabbits can have a perfectly beating
heart. Scientists custom-made the membrane to exactly fit the shape of a
particular rabbit’s heart. In order to do this, they followed two
procedures. Firstly, they scanned the rabbit’s heart while it was still
alive and created a 3D model using computer aided tomography (sectional images
through penetrating waves). Secondly, using a 3D printer, they assembled the
model which they then used as a mould to design the membrane. Once the membrane
was created, they took the heart out of the rabbit, put the membrane on it and
kept it beating at its perfect pace.
John Rorgers, materials researcher at the University of Illinois, stated that this technology is just like the natural
membrane that is already on the heart, not just a pacemaker. However,
this artificial pericardium is equipped with high quality, man-made technology
that can sense and communicate with the heart in ways that are relevant to
clinical cardiology. Igor Efimov, Washington University’s
biomedical engineer, says that this is a big advancement. The circuits
are a combination of sensors that continuously track the tissues’ way of
behaving and electrodes that exactly control the heart muscles’ movement:
If the heart were to suffer a heart attack, the membrane can
apply therapy. It can apply stimuli that can stop sudden cardiac
death. What an amazing feat!!
If you have any sensible comments regarding this story,
please leave your comments in the section below.
SOURCE: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/revolutionary-membrane-can-keep-your-heart-beating-perf-1534678803



