Artificial Heart Recipient Has No Pulse 465
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.
Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
Blood pressure issues? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:3, Interesting)
Good question. And it's one (according to the article links) they are asking. Note that just because something has had hundreds of millions of years of evolution does not mean it's very good or could not be improved upon. Look at the Sinus cavity for example.
Re:Should sleep with a sign on chest/back.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Or misdiagnose her if she isn't.
What about clotting? (Score:4, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Introducing tickless technology to vertebrates. (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't worry, the penguin's kernel has evolved to pulseless a few years ago and is all fine and dandy :P
Does she feel any different? (Score:5, Interesting)
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:In a movie (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Some kind of tattoo explaining the situation is probably in order.
Vonda N. McIntire, "Superluminal" (Score:4, Interesting)
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".
Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
These kinds of technologies... (Score:1, Interesting)
Make you re-evaluate the standard by which we hold someone "living".
It's one thing if a person dies of natural old age, or at a terminal stage of progressive dementia, or simply due to brain injury -- the mind of the person, his character, his memory -- all is gone forever. There is no point in trying to keep the rest of the body alive (even though I'm sure some religious folks would disagree with this...)
It's completely another thing when someone dies of an organ failure that, by itself, doesn't destroy the person -- it just prevents functions necessary to sustain life further. The brain itself doesn't really need that much -- all it needs is a steady supply of fresh blood, containing the necessary nutrients, oxygen, and cellular content, at the correct temperature and pressure. But the body has to run a lot of different organs to keep that fresh blood coming.
Major organ failure (e.g. heart) was once considered synonymous with death. Now technology challenges that assumption. Sooner or later we will reach the day when either all organs (at least except the brain, although even that is questionable) will be viewed no differently than spare parts, replaceable at will when damaged. The human identity would be separated from the supporting organs, and considering a human dead just because his heart failed would be as ridiculous as considering the data on your computer gone just because the power supply failed. Yes, you can't access it without power, but all we need is some mechanisms from it being permanently lost every bloody time we turn off the power supply. In hard drives, this already works (nonvolatile storage). In humans, we'll find solutions to keep that blood coming to the brain, no matter what organ fails, and in a moment's notice. The only vulnerable body part would be the brain.
Of course, just like with a hard drive, we'll also sooner or later learn to back up brain data, which opens a whole new can of worms and completely re-defines our idea of life and humanity, but that's a story for another day.
What's her blood pressure? (Score:3, Interesting)
Curious, honestly... I wonder what the long term ramifications of having a non-fluctuating bp are?
this is great, but why not just regorw the heart? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What about clotting? (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, what causes blood to clot is contact with air.
Re:In a movie (Score:3, Interesting)
Great article (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:All logic aside.. (Score:4, Interesting)
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 (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Should sleep with a sign on chest/back.. (Score:1, Interesting)
Most EMS systems and hospitals in her area will be notified, probably receive a packet of information on the device with instructions with what to do in an emergency. CPR and defibrillation will be withheld. With some devices (Left Ventricular Assistance Devices) you can shock the patient if they have one, but still no CPR. Since this is a pulseless machine, even doppler won't detect if the patient is alive (BP/pulse). However, you could probably auscultate and detect the wirring of the machine when listening for heart sounds.
-- Anonymous Paramedic Student
Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:4, Interesting)
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!
Re:In a movie (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually many people thing the pumps damaging blood cells might cause a horrifying side effect of bypass surgery called 'pump head'
http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/bypasssurgery/a/pumphead.htm [about.com]
Re:No pulse seems bad (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't have all the facts (as I guess nobody in the world at this point does), but based on what I know, I will strongly disagree, and here is why: the purpose of the heart is to provide blood to the body's tissues, in order to keep them oxigenated. The rate of oxigenation depends on the average flux of the blood. Whether the blood flows continuously or pulsed, it is important to maintain an average flux of a given intensity. With continuous flux, the maximum pressure of the blood will be less than with pulsed flux - I hope you can see this, because I wouldn't know how to make this clearer to you.
Since this device, for a given average flux of blood, generates less maximum blood pressures, it will cause less problems such as brain haemorragy, with no (known, at least) drawbacks.
Re:Heart Mate II Pump (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:No pulse seems bad (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:In a movie (Score:3, Interesting)
And how would that be measured (non-invasively)? Blood pressure is read by squeezing off the artery and listening and watching for the various points in the pulse. If there is no pulse, there is no measurement.
Uh yeah there is. How do you think they get the low number in your blood pressure reading?
Here's how it works: They pump up the cuff until it blocks off all blood flow. They slowly lower the pressure until when the heart pumps, the pressure is enough to force it past the cuff and they can hear the pulse (and you can see the needle start to twitch on the pressure gauge). But at this point, the pressure is still enough to block blood flow during the 'off' half of the beat. So they continue lowering the pressure until they can hear that your blood is flowing continuously.
So to measure the blood pressure of someone without a pulse but whose blood is flowing, you do the exact same thing but skip the 'high' measurement. Easy-peasy.
Re:"Here" is not a pronoun (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Does she feel any different? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.