Artificial heart with sensors and software may soon become a reality
By Anne Eisenberg
In France, where the device is not yet cleared for human implantation, regulators have requested more animal tests, Jansen said; those tests are continuing.Scientists have long searched for a durable artificial heart that can work as efficiently as the one supplied by nature.
Now Carmat, a company based in Paris, has designed an artificial heart fashioned in part from cow tissue. The device, soon to be tested in patients with heart failure, is regulated by sensors, software and microelectronics. And its power will come from two external, wearable lithium-ion batteries.
Fifteen years in development, the heart has been approved for clinical trials at cardiac surgery centers in Belgium, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Slovenia, where staff members are receiving training and patients are being screened, said Dr. Piet Jansen, medical director at Carmat.
In France, where the device is not yet cleared for human implantation, regulators have requested more animal tests, Jansen said; those tests are continuing.
Artificial hearts aren't new, of course, but the Carmat heart is unusual in its design, said Joseph Rogers, an associate professor at Duke University and medical director of its cardiac transplant and mechanical circulatory support program. Surfaces in the new heart that touch human blood are made from cow tissue instead of artificial materials like plastic that can cause problems like clotting.
"The way they've incorporated biological surfaces for any place that contacts blood is a really nice advantage," Rogers said. "If they have this design right, this could be a game changer."
He added that it could lessen the need for anticoagulation medicines. (Rogers has no financial connections to Carmat.)
This is the first artificial heart to use cow-derived materials - specifically, tissue from the pericardial sac that surrounds the heart. Biological tissue has been used in earlier mechanical blood pumps only in valves, Rogers said.
Thousands of people in the United States need a replacement heart, said Dr. Lynne Warner Stevenson, a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the cardiomyopathy and heart-failure program at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
"It's estimated that if we had enough donor hearts to go around, 100,000 to 150,000 people in the United States with heart failure would benefit," she said.
"Transplants work best, but we have only 2,000 or so adult hearts" that are available each year, she said. "It's a huge problem."
There are long-established options for patients while they await transplants, Stevenson said, including installing an artificial heart made by SynCardia until a donor heart is available.
When the natural heart is partly damaged or diseased, patients might keep it and have a mechanical aid implanted to bolster blood flow. Such pumps - especially those that aid the left side of the heart - are in wide use both as a bridge to a transplant and for lifetime therapy.
A totally artificial heart for extended use would be of great value, but it's far too early to know if the Carmat heart, as yet untried in humans, will be that device.
In France, where the device is not yet cleared for human implantation, regulators have requested more animal tests, Jansen said; those tests are continuing.Scientists have long searched for a durable artificial heart that can work as efficiently as the one supplied by nature.Now Carmat, a company based in Paris, has designed an artificial heart fashioned in part from cow tissue. The device, soon to be tested in patients with heart failure, is regulated by sensors, software and microelectronics. And its power will come from two external, wearable lithium-ion batteries.
Fifteen years in development, the heart has been approved for clinical trials at cardiac surgery centers in Belgium, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Slovenia, where staff members are receiving training and patients are being screened, said Dr. Piet Jansen, medical director at Carmat.
In France, where the device is not yet cleared for human implantation, regulators have requested more animal tests, Jansen said; those tests are continuing.
Artificial hearts aren't new, of course, but the Carmat heart is unusual in its design, said Joseph Rogers, an associate professor at Duke University and medical director of its cardiac transplant and mechanical circulatory support program. Surfaces in the new heart that touch human blood are made from cow tissue instead of artificial materials like plastic that can cause problems like clotting.
"The way they've incorporated biological surfaces for any place that contacts blood is a really nice advantage," Rogers said. "If they have this design right, this could be a game changer."
He added that it could lessen the need for anticoagulation medicines. (Rogers has no financial connections to Carmat.)
This is the first artificial heart to use cow-derived materials - specifically, tissue from the pericardial sac that surrounds the heart. Biological tissue has been used in earlier mechanical blood pumps only in valves, Rogers said.
Thousands of people in the United States need a replacement heart, said Dr. Lynne Warner Stevenson, a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the cardiomyopathy and heart-failure program at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
"It's estimated that if we had enough donor hearts to go around, 100,000 to 150,000 people in the United States with heart failure would benefit," she said.
"Transplants work best, but we have only 2,000 or so adult hearts" that are available each year, she said. "It's a huge problem."
There are long-established options for patients while they await transplants, Stevenson said, including installing an artificial heart made by SynCardia until a donor heart is available.
When the natural heart is partly damaged or diseased, patients might keep it and have a mechanical aid implanted to bolster blood flow. Such pumps - especially those that aid the left side of the heart - are in wide use both as a bridge to a transplant and for lifetime therapy.
A totally artificial heart for extended use would be of great value, but it's far too early to know if the Carmat heart, as yet untried in humans, will be that device.
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