Heart attacks and strokes triggered by electrical misfiring in the heart are among the biggest killers on the planet. Now, researchers have created a “liquid wire” that, when injected into pig hearts, can guide the organs to a normal rhythm.
, presented here this week at a meeting of the American Chemical Society, are “impressive and really cool,” says Thomas Mansell, a biomolecular engineer at Iowa State University who was not involved with the work. “It’s an exciting study,” agrees Usha Tedrow, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Harvard Medical School, also not involved in the work. If the findings translate to people, she says, it could save thousands of lives each year.
Medications and a procedure known as ablation therapy—in which some of the pacemaker cells are frozen or fried—can help. Other patients must have a defibrillator implanted. If the device detects arrhythmia, it sends a powerful electrical pulse to the top of the heart to shock the muscle back into normal rhythm. It can be painful. “Patients never know when they’ll be shocked,” says Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez, a biomaterials engineer at the University of Texas, Austin.
In hopes of getting around this problem, Cosgriff-Hernandez and her colleagues set out to create a liquidlike gel they could inject throughout the length of a coronary vein. The gel would then rapidly harden into a conductive, flexible plastic. The researchers then fed both through an ultrathin divided catheter that keeps the liquids separate and inserted the catheter into a coronary vein at the top of the hearts of live pigs. The team pushed the liquids down the vein and its tributaries and removed the catheter. Once the two liquids met inside the vein, the compounds reacted within minutes and hardened into a flexible wire.
Indonesia Berita Terbaru, Indonesia Berita utama
Similar News:Anda juga dapat membaca berita serupa dengan ini yang kami kumpulkan dari sumber berita lain.
WWE star Triple H retires from wrestling, says heart condition will prevent him from working in-ring againTriple H, 52, said his in-ring career is over because he now has a defibrillator in his chest after suffering a cardiac event last September.
Baca lebih lajut »
How tuberculosis reshaped our immune systemsTuberculosis has killed more than 1 billion people over the past 2000 years. On this WorldTuberculosisDay, learn more about the rise and fall of the disease over the past 10,000 years.
Baca lebih lajut »
Can drugs reduce the risk of long COVID? What scientists know so farResearchers are trying to establish whether existing COVID-19 vaccines and treatments can prevent lasting symptoms.
Baca lebih lajut »
For 2022 Padres rotation, it's about being better and deeperTeam seeks to prevent recurrence of drop-off when poor pitching or bad luck occurs
Baca lebih lajut »