Five months have gone by since the operation that allowed 3-year-old Grayson Clamp, born deaf; hear the voice of his father for the first time. While progress has been made, with Grayson spontaneously saying a few words, it appears he still has a lot of catching up to do. Dr. Jon LaPook reports.
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Audrina Cardenas was born one year ago Tuesday with her heart outside her body. The very next day, she endured a six-hour surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital in which a team of surgeons actually put it back inside her!
Audrina was born with a rare condition called Ectopia Cordis. Only 8 in one million babies are born with that condition and 90 percent of them are either stillborn or die within the first three days of life, according to Texas Children’s Hospital.
Audrina was able to celebrate her birthday free of medications, but is still on oxygen. Her development is improving every day and she’s now crawling and even trying to walk.
She will still require another surgery in the next few months to construct a chest wall to protect her heart and repair cardiac defects associated with her condition.
Developed by US start-up Nanostim, the device is designed to be implanted intravenously directly in the heart.
It is less than 10% of the size of a conventional pacemaker and uses a built-in battery.
Experts said it was an “exciting development” but at a very early stage.
The pacemaker has yet to receive full US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
Conventional pacemakers require a patient to be cut open and a pocket created in the body to house the pacemaker and associated wires.
Such wires are regarded as the component of pacemakers most likely to fail. The pocket created for the pacemaker is also liable to infection.
By contrast the Nanostim pacemaker is delivered via a catheter inserted through the femoral vein near the groin.
It has a built-in battery, smaller than an AAA battery, that lasts between nine and 13 years. Eliminating the need for wires lowers the risk of infection or malfunction and means that patients are not restricted in the amount of activity they do, the firm behind the device claims.
The procedure to fit the pacemaker typically lasts around half an hour. The device is designed to be easily retrievable so that the battery can be replaced.
Because the device is delivered intravenously, it also means patients will have no scarring.
One doctor, involved in its trials, described it as “the future of pacemaking”.
“For the past 40 years the therapeutic promise of leadless pacing has been discussed, but until now, no-one has been able to overcome the technical challenges,” said Dr Johannes Sperzel of the Kerchhoff Klinik in Bad Nauheim, Germany.
“This revolutionary technology offers patients a safe, minimally-invasive option for pacemaker delivery that eliminates leads and surgical pockets,” he added.
Better understanding
But others were more cautious.
Prof Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This is a potentially exciting development but it’s early days.
“Before this leadless pacemaker becomes widely available, we need a better understanding of how long it will last, as well as how easy it is to replace if necessary. As our knowledge of this new pacemaker widens, so too will the expertise needed to fit this potentially exciting device.”
The company behind the device has recently been bought by global medical device firm St Jude.
It has had several wire-based pacemakers recalled in recent years.
Other device makers are also planning to go wireless. The Wireless Cardiac Stimulation system has been developed by US start-up EBR Systems and UK-based tech firm Cambridge Consultants and uses a tiny wireless electrode no bigger than a grain of rice powered by an ultrasonic pulse generator, inserted lower down in the chest.
In 2011 the device was implanted in 100 patients in hospitals across Europe.
Cardiac pacemakers are used to treat slow heart rates. The devices monitor the heart and provide electrical stimulation when the heart beats too slowly.
The first pacemaker was fitted in 1958. Currently more than four million people around the world have some sort of cardiac rhythm device with an additional 700,000 people getting one each year.
Source: http://www.techinvestornews.com
Engineers have invented a new kind of toothbrush that is tailor-made to fit into a person’s mouth.
According to Blizzident’s makers, the toothbrush cleans teeth completely within six seconds, though independent studies are yet to verify the claims.
To make the brush, the dentists take teeth’s digital scan then the makers use it to find out the optimal placement of 600 bristles by simulating biting and chewing movements.
The bristles look like normal bristles but are much finer and have been tapered to reach under the gumline better.
The makers print the brush with 3D printing. They use the dental scan to create a computer aided design (CAD) model of the brush that is then converted into a 3D object using stereolithography – a method in which liquid plastic is created into the shape with an ultraviolet laser, Fox News reported.
The bristles are then painstakingly attached to this object.
To use Blizzident, a person has to bite down on it and grind their teeth for about six seconds.
Source: http://www.business-standard.com
“An AED, if used during a cardiac arrest within the first 4-6 minutes, can save more than 95 percent of lives
Nimit Ahuja, a 35-year old software professional, was shopping at a mall when he suddenly collapsed. He was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. He had suffered from what doctors call a sudden cardiac arrest.
Cardiologists say young lives like these can be saved if there are facilities like Automated External Defibrillators (AED) available at public places in India. An AED is a portable device that can automatically diagnose a sudden cardiac arrest and help save life with the press of a button. It sends an electric shock to the heart to restore its normal rhythm and bring a person back from the verge of death.
“An AED, if used during a cardiac arrest within the first 4-6 minutes, can save more than 95 percent of lives,” Bipin Kumar Dubey, director, department of cardiology in the Rockland group of hospitals, told IANS.
“There should be at least one AED available at all public spaces like shopping malls and airports. The government should make it mandatory for builders to set up at least one AED in all public buildings,” he said.
Doctors said Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is a leading cause of death and account for greater than 50 percent of cardiovascular deaths in India. More than 660,000 deaths occur every year in India alone as a result of SCA.
The SCA is a condition in which the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. If this happens, blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs.
Experts said people who have heart disease are at a higher risk for SCA. SCA can however happen in people who appear healthy and have no known heart disease or other risk factors like hypertension.
Ram E. Rajagopalan in the department of critical care medicine in Sundaram Medical Foundation of Chennai said if an AED is used on a patient suffering with a sudden cardiac arrest his chances of survival will grow by more than 60 percent.
“We definitely need the common man to be aware of what an AED is, as anyone anywhere with access to an AED can save a life,” Rajagopalan told IANS.
Lamenting that very few people know how to respond to emergency situations like SCAs in India, Anil Bansal, chief cardiologist at Columbia Asia Hospital in Gurgaon, said people have to be trained to use an AED.
“The need of the hour is to make AED devices available at all public spaces and to train people on how to use them,” he added.
A recent study in medical journal Lancet said that by 2010, 60 percent of the world’s heart patients would be in India.
As per World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, mortality due to cardiac causes has overtaken mortality due to all cancers put together across the world.
Source : Zee News
For the first time ever, doctors have developed an artificial leg that is controlled by the person’s thoughts. And it happened here at the Rehabilitation Institute Of Chicago (RIC).
“So I move my leg out, push the toes down and bring my toes back up,” said Zac Vawter, the first man in the nation to have a so-called bionic leg.
He is able to make these movements just like people with a fully functioning leg do: With his thoughts.
In 2009, Vawter lost his right leg from above the knee down in a motorcycle accident. His bionic leg allows him to bend his knee and move his ankle. “It’s exciting,” he said. “It’s neat. It’s intuitive. It puts energy into me walking and moving around.” With a regular prosthetic leg, movement like this isn’t possible.
So how does this all work?
Two nerves in Vawter’s leg were rewired to his hamstring muscle. Those nerves communicate with the sensors inside the prosthetic leg socket. The sensors send a message to a computer. “So when he thinks about straightening or bending his knee, this computer can detect that and tell the knee to bend or to straighten,” Dr. Annie Simon, Biomedical Engineer at the RIC.
A team, headed by Dr. Levi Hargrove, spent four years perfecting the technology Vawter is using. “He’s giving back so much,” Hargrove said. “He’s taken a less than ideal situation and made the most of it and he’s helping potentially, millions of people.”
Vawter, a software engineer, knew about RIC’s bionic research. He never thought one day, that technology would be used to help him walk.
“RIC is really pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with prosthetics and it’s exciting to contribute to that and to help them push forward into new areas of research,” Vawter said.
RIC research is funded through an $8 million grant from the U.S. Army with a goal of creating better prosthetic limbs.
More than 1,200 soldiers have had lower limb amputations from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Source: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/09/25/bionic-man-amputee-controls-artificial-leg-with-thoughts/
If you want to learn more about your lifestyle habits, a new wristband and app called UP, made by the technology company Jawbone, might be able to help.
Users wear the wristband, which syncs to their smart phones, throughout the day to monitor how many steps they take, how long they sleep, what they eat everyday – and even what their mood is like.
If users are idle for too long, the app will give them a nudge to get them moving again. Additionally, the app can help people wake up at the optimal time every morning.
The band costs $130 and offers customized health tips at the end of each day.
While users should still speak with their doctors about their overall health goals, this app is a good way help people monitor their progress along the way
Source: Fox news.com
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued final rules covering the development of mobile medical apps on Monday, saying it will focus it oversight on those apps that have the potential to harm consumers if they do not function properly.
The FDA has cleared about 100 mobile medical apps over the past decade, including products that can diagnose abnormal heart rhythms or help patients monitor their blood sugar. About 40 apps were cleared within the past two years.
The agency said it will not regulate the sale or general consumer use of smart phones or tablets or mobile app distributors such as the iTunes store or Google Play store.
It will, however, focus its enforcement on products that transform smart phones into devices the agency currently regulates, such as electrocardiography (ECG) machines that can determine whether a patient is having a heart attack.
The FDA will also focus on apps that would be used as an accessory to a regulated device, such as one that displays images used by physicians to make specific diagnoses.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/23/us-fda-issues-final-rules-governing-mobile-medical-apps/
Miniature human organs developed with a modified 3D printer are being used to test new vaccines in a lab in the US.
The “body on a chip” project replicates human cells to print structures which mimic the functions of the heart, liver, lung and blood vessels.
The organs are then placed on a microchip and connected with a blood substitute, allowing scientists to closely monitor specific treatments.
The US Department of Defense has backed the new technology with $24m (£15m).
Bioprinting, a form of 3D printing which, in effect, creates human tissue, is not new. Nor is the idea of culturing 3D human tissue on a microchip.
It works better than testing on animals”
Dr Anthony Atala Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
But the tests being carried out at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina are the first to combine several organs on the same device, which then model the human response to chemical toxins or biologic agents
Printing organs
The modified 3D printers, developed at Wake Forest, print human cells in hydrogel-based scaffolds.
The lab-engineered organs are then placed on a 2in (5cm) chip and linked together with a circulating blood substitute, similar to the type used in trauma surgery.
The blood substitute keeps the cells alive and can be used to introduce chemical or biologic agents, as well as potential therapies, into the system.
Sensors which measure real-time temperature, oxygen levels, pH and other factors feed back information on how the organs react and – crucially – how they interact with each other.
Dr Anthony Atala, institute director at Wake Forest and lead investigator on the project, said the technology would be used both to “predict the effects of chemical and biologic agents and to test the effectiveness of potential treatments”.
“You are actually testing human tissue,” he explained.
“It works better than testing on animals.”
Anti-terrorism
A group of experts from around the US is involved in putting together the technology, which will carry out toxicity testing and identification.
The funding for the project was awarded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a division of the US government which combats nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
The tests being carried out at Wake Forest “would significantly decrease the time and cost needed to develop medical countermeasures” for bioterrorism attacks, said Dr Clint Florence, acting branch chief of vaccines within the Translational Medical Division at DTRA.
Wake Forest said it was able to test for antidotes to sarin gas, recently used against civilians in Syria.
Printed house
Dr Atala, whose field is regenerative medicine, said the bioprinting technology was first used at Wake Forest for building tissues and organs for replacement in patients.
His team had managed to replicate flat organs, such as skin, tubular organs such as blood vessels, and even hollow non-tubular organs like the bladder and the stomach, which have more complex structures and functions.
But building solid organs like the heart and the liver is the hardest challenge yet.
It takes about 30 minutes just to print a miniature kidney or heart, which is the size of a small biscuit.
“There are so many cells per centimetre that making a big organ is quite complex,” Dr Atala told the BBC.
But the bioprinting of full size solid organs might not be far away.
“We are working on creating solid organ implants,” said Dr Atala.
Source: BBC News
Scientists have developed an ultra-thin tattoo-like patch that when glued to the skin can be used as a thermometer to measure its temperature.
A team of researchers from the US, China, and Singapore have created the small patch that looks like a bar-code tattoo and is applied using special glue.
It keeps working even when the skin to which it is attached twists and turns.
The patch can measure body temperature (at the skin level) very accurately, and over a continuous period of time.
Also, because it measures heat at multiple locations (at the same skin site) at the same time, the patch is capable of monitoring heat flow and the constriction and dilation of blood vessels as they respond to the environment around them.
The team claims that the patches can work in reverse as well, delivering heat to the skin, if desired, simply by increasing the voltage, ‘phys.Org’ reported.
The patch isn’t ready for use by the general population just yet, however, as it still requires an external power source.
The team is investigating different sources for different types of patches – solar for those applied to the skin and bioelectric for those applied inside the body, such as to the outside of organs.
Source: Zee news