Artificial heart made with space technology

A CHINESE artificial heart design used in patients with aerospace technology will go into clinical research by the end of this year, according to its developer. When the device reaches the market, it may help millions of Chinese suffering from weak hearts.

Developed by scientists from the No. 18 Research Institute under the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the country’s leading rocket maker, the artificial heart called HeartCon weighs only 180 grams and is smaller than the size of a fist.

After being implanted into a human to replace the original heart organ, it will function as a pump that delivers blood to the whole body, said Xu Jian, chief engineer of the project.

The artificial heart works similar to a rocket’s servomechanism, which is driven by a hydraulic pump, Xu said.

A servomechanism is a device used to provide control of a desired operation through the use of feedback.

“The servomechanism on a rocket has higher requirements in speed and power, while the artificial heart demands more focus on safety and comfort as it is small and needs to be implanted,” Xu explained.

Scientists from the institute began developing the artificial heart in 2009. The HeartCon was tested in many animal experiments. In 2013, a sheep with the implanted artificial heart lived for 120 days. Two years later, the hearts were placed in three sheep and all survived, indicating that the device was ready for batch production.

In 2017, scientists implanted the HeartCons into six sheep and set a new record as one of them survived for 180 days.

Success was also achieved in humans. A 39-year-old male and a female, 62, were the first two patients to get HeartCons in March this year in Tianjin. Both are in good health.

(Xinhua)