Scientists are developing a robotic sleeve that can encase a flabby diseased heart and gently squeeze to keep it pumping.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So far it\u2019s been tested only in animals, improving blood flow in pigs. But this \u201csoft robotic\u201d device mimics the natural movements of a beating heart, a strategy for next-generation treatments of deadly heart failure.<\/p>\n
The key: A team from Harvard University and Boston Children\u2019s Hospital wound artificial muscles into the thin silicone sleeve, so that it alternately compresses, twists and relaxes in synchrony with the heart tissue underneath.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a dramatically different approach than today\u2019s therapies and, if it eventually is proven in people, it might offer a new alternative to heart transplants or maybe even aid in recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can customize the function of the assist device to meet the individual needs of that heart,\u201d said Dr. Frank Pigula, a cardiac surgeon who, while at Boston Children\u2019s, took the idea to Harvard colleagues developing soft robotics.<\/p>\n
More than 5 million Americans, and 41 million people worldwide, suffer heart failure, a number growing as the population ages. A heart left damaged by a heart attack, high blood pressure or other conditions becomes progressively weaker and unable to pump properly.<\/p>\n
For severe cases, the only options are a scarce heart transplant or battery-powered mechanical pumps that are implanted into the chest to take over the job of pumping blood. These VADs, ventricular assist devices, prolong life, but running blood through the machinery can leave patients at risk of blood clots, strokes and bleeding.<\/p>\n
That shouldn\u2019t be a risk with the robotic sleeve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nice thing about this is it can go on the outside of the heart, so it doesn\u2019t have to contact blood at all,\u201d said Harvard associate engineering professor Conor Walsh, senior author of the research published Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Unlike with traditional rigid medical devices, the soft robotics approach allowed design of a sleeve that could fit snugly over a heart\u2019s irregular surfaces. It moves thanks to artificial muscles, a concept developed in the polio era that\u2019s now being used in robotics. They\u2019re powered by pressurized air that would have to be carried in a pump in a backpack or fanny pack much like the batteries that power today\u2019s VADs.<\/p>\n
The researchers programmed the robotic sleeve to move in the same pattern as the weakened heart muscle it surrounds while strengthening and optimizing each heartbeat. The device can be tailored to compress different sections of the heart.<\/p>\n
And importantly, as the sleeve relaxes, it helps the damaged heart better expand and refill with blood ready to be pumped out with the next heartbeat, said Pigula, who is now with the University of Louisville.<\/p>\n
The big test: The sleeve restored normal blood flow in six pigs that had been put into heart failure, Walsh\u2019s team reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.<\/p>\n
The experiments were short, lasting only a few hours, and more research to test how long animals could live safely with the implanted sleeve is crucial before it ever could be studied in people, Walsh cautioned. He\u2019d also like to study if physically moving damaged heart muscle \u2014 essentially exercising it \u2014 might spur it to heal and require less assistance from the sleeve over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m quite impressed with where this research is going,\u201d said Dr. Christopher O\u2019Connor, chief executive of the Inova Heart and Vascular Institute in suburban Washington, who wasn\u2019t involved with the sleeve\u2019s development.<\/p>\n
Researchers have previously tried \u201csocks\u201d and other ways to encase or compress the heart with little success.<\/p>\n
Unlike those prior attempts, the new sleeve is \u201csmart, it\u2019s robotic,\u201d said O\u2019Connor, who edits an American College of Cardiology heart failure journal. \u201cThey really worked on developing a device that can mimic the contraction of the weakened heart muscle and augment it so there is improved heart function without the theoretical clot risk.\u201d\u2014AP<\/p>\n
Image: AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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