Artificial Heart Recipient Has No Pulse

laggist writes "A heart patient in Singapore has been implanted with an artificial heart that pumps blood continuously, allowing her to live without a pulse. From the article: '... the petite Madam Salina, who suffers from end-stage heart failure, would not have been able to use the older and bulkier models because they can only be implanted in patients 1.7m or taller. The 30-year-old administrative assistant is the first recipient here to get a new artificial heart that pumps blood continuously, the reason why there are no beats on her wrist.'" The story is light on details, but an article from last year in MIT's Technology Review explains a bit more about how a pulse-less artificial heart works.

Comments

Re:Any systems depend on a pulse

[Myji Humoz]

Speaking as a biomedical engineer, there are no significant systems that we know of that require a varying pressure of blood to function correctly. The pulse as the blood gets pumped stretches the arterial and capillary walls slightly, but that's about it. Very few cells in the body experience the effects of the pulsing pressure to begin with, and those tend to be ones that can function despite the pulse rather than because of it.

Re:In a movie

[blind biker]

This device is bladeless. In fact, one of the major advantages of this artificial heart compared to the traditional ones, is that this damages less blood cells than all other artificial "pulsed" devices. It has other benefits, like smaller size and less energy consumption. Overall, it's a greatly improved system.

Heart Mate II Pump

[t00le]

She is holding a Heart Mate II pump...most of our patients get this model...and NONE have a regular pulse. Funny since this is just breaking news and St Lukes Heart Transplant do it day in and day out, for a loooong time.