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

Any systems depend on a pulse

[MyLongNickName]

With hundreds of millions of years of evolution, are there any systems in the human body that are dependent on the pulse to function properly?

Re:Any systems depend on a pulse

[MBGMorden]

Well if we're in there redesigning the system anyways, it seems that there should be some way to filter or shake the blood as it passes through this thing to prevent clotting. Heck in some distant future it'd be interesting to see if it could be designed to filter out unwanted levels things like cholesterol and the like. Or for diabetics, directly monitor blood-sugar levels and inject insulin as needed to keep things under control.

Or with it being in such directly contact with so many of the body's essential systems, perhaps enough monitors could be built in that it could via wifi or the like send signals to the local dispatch office if the blood stops flowing, or if the blood pressure crosses a certain threshold.

Of course I'm playing armchair medical engineer here with no real knowledge whatsoever, but that's what most "futurists" do anyways :D.

Re:Any systems depend on a pulse

[slack_justyb]

perhaps enough monitors could be built in that it could via wifi or the like send signals to the local dispatch office if the blood stops flowing

Finally, a use case for IPv6. Give an address to every human organ in every human. I purpose that we use the 2001:911::/32 address space so that it is easy to remember your organs' IP address.

Oh God! I think I'm having a heart attack, quick someone SNMP to 2001:911:34A:2F71::2 and send the restart command!

Blood pressure issues?

[ShadowRangerRIT]

The article doesn't address this, but I'm a little concerned by the idea of a pulseless system. On the one hand, there is no pressure spike, but on the other hand, the pressure never lets up. I'[m curious what effect this sort of device will have on strokes and other blood flow disturbances. The steady pulse-and-release rhythm constantly tugs at potential clots in different directions, presumably breaking up many incipient clots. Will a steady flow system do the same?

What about clotting?

[cyberjock1980]

I'm no med student. I'm just curious. I had heard that blood clotting relies on the blood remaining still for a period of time. Normally your pulse still allows for clotting because of the brief period of time that the blood doesn't flow. If you get a cut, you will bleed. In this case if the blood never stops moving will the individual bleed to death from something as simple as a papercut?

But at the same time, if that were the case how did the patient survive the surgery?

Re:In a movie

[sopssa]

Or even more so, how do machines or the nurses/doctors see you're still living if you're temporary unconscious (maybe a few too many beers?) and your pulse is zero. Then they'll declare you dead and dig you to graveyard. Nice place to wake up after a night of partying.

Does she feel any different?

[BobMcD]

Having always had a heartbeat since birth, I can only assume that I can feel it beat, but am ignoring it. Obviously there are exceptions where I can very much feel and hear my pulse, and am very well aware of it.

She'll never feel that again.

Does she notice?

Re:Does she feel any different?

[PaganRitual]

I'll swap with her. I've had an artifical heart valve since very shortly after birth, and every single pulse of my life since I've been old enough to understand the concept of my heart beating is, so long as it's not overly noisy, completely audible. And because it's an internal noise, or because I know what to listen for, it's much easier to pick up than you would think. I'm sitting in an office with about 10 people all working at computers and I can hear it now.

Allow me to assure you that the tick of your own heart beating audibly for every single fucking beat, will slowly but almost certainly drive you mad. I used to sleep with a radio every single night on for a period of virtually 10 years. Even now from time to time I go to bed with headphones on to not bother my wife but still drown out the ticking.

I would swap an audible pulse for no pulse at all in a ... well, heartbeat.

Vonda N. McIntire, "Superluminal"

[argent]

In Vonda McIntyre's novel "Superluminal" starship pilots had to have their hearts replaced with a rotary pump because the rhythm of the heartbeat caused a breakdown in their bodies during FTL flight.

They called the pulse-less pilots "Aztecs".

this is great, but why not just regorw the heart?

[PJ6]

It's good that these devices can now last years, but why wouldn't they keep the heart they take out, remove all the cells from the heart's tissue scaffold, and then regrow it with her own stem cells? They've already done this successfully in animals. One would assume that putting the original back in would be a better, and in the long run, cheaper option.

Re:All logic aside..

[Abreu]

Well, considering that my sister (she's a physician) tells me that life as a resident is a lot more like Scrubs and a lot less than ER, Grey's Anatomy, et. al., I am sure she would end up being the "newbie prank" for all new residents and nurses.

No pulse seems bad

[gr8_phk]

Having pressure pulses should tend to make blood flow into places that are harder to get at. It's probably bad to operate continuously at high pressure, and it's probably bad not to go to high pressure. Like TFA says, further investigation into this type of pump is needed and planned if they can get funding. I just hope they don't test on some type population that happens to do well with it.

Re:Heart Mate II Pump

[Spaceman Spiff II]

I was looking for this comment as the tech is not new. I was surprised to see it now on Slashdot. Ventricular Assist Devices have been around for a long time, and I know that at least Thoratec's Heartmate II and Heartware's HVAD are continuous flow. At least 50 people in the US already have Heartware's device in them, and I think there's been a European study, too. One thing I've heard and would be curious to know if it's true, is that even though the device is a continuous flow pump many patients spontaneously develop a pulse anyway. Have you seen that?

Re:"Here" is not a pronoun

[pjt33]

I know English grammar because I studied Latin. In fact, it was very noticeable in English lessons that the six hands that went up whenever a question about grammar was asked belonged to the six people taking Latin.