Vibrating vest could help to shake off a heart attack

A VIBRATING vest could be a lifesaver for patients who have had a heart attack.

Designed to be worn straight after an attack, the special vest contains a device that generates low frequency sound waves to make it vibrate and stimulate circulation to the heart. The sound waves spread across the chest and shake the heart and its blood vessels, breaking up blockages stopping blood flow.

Researchers, about to start a clinical trial at Mount Sinai Medical Centre in the US, say that it reduces long-term, potentially fatal damage to the heart and enhances the effects of medication, because it opens up the arteries faster.

Every year, about 175 000 people in the UK have a heart attack. They occur when the arteries that supply the heart muscle with oxygenated blood are blocked by a clot or a build-up of fatty deposits (plaque). If the blood supply is cut off, that part of the heart muscle starts to die.

A patient’s survival and any long-term damage hinge on how much muscle dies during the attack. The smaller the area affected and the faster the blockage is removed, the greater the chance of survival.

In an emergency, paramedics give aspirin pills or glyceryl trinitrate spray under the tongue to increase blood supply to the heart by widening blood vessels. But often patients need to be taken to hospital for medication to dissolve the blockages and surgery to keep the artery open.

The new treatment – upper torso vibro-acoustic stimulation – can be used by paramedics to clear arteries faster. This, in turn, can increase the speed at which the anti-clotting drugs work by getting medication to the site of the blockage more quickly, report researchers in the online journal, Cath Lab Digest.

The vest is fitted with a generator that sits over the chest. In the new trial, 15 heart attack patients will get the vests or standard drug treatment for 30 minutes after a heart attack. Researchers will then monitor outcomes and heart health for six months.

Dr Punit Ramrakha, a consultant cardiologist at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, says this kind of technology has been used successfully in treating a variety of conditions for many years.

“The challenge for use in heart attack patients is delivering the right frequency to the right place at the right time,” says Ramrakha.

Meanwhile, common painkillers may be linked to an increased risk of heart attack, according to a study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Researchers in Taiwan analysed data from nearly 10 000 people in hospital as a result of a heart attack. They found that patients who had used painkillers known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, had a 1.5 times greater risk of a heart attack.

This risk rose to 3.4-fold higher if they used them at the same time as nursing a respiratory infection. Exactly why is unclear.