Hybrid Heart combines cows and mechanics

A new kind of heart has been developed which contains both synthetic and mechanical elements as well as sensors and software that detect changes in a patient’s body and adjust outputs accordingly — coming encased in the sac that surrounds a cow’s heart.

Designed by Carmat, the “bio-prosthetic” device contains two chambers — separated by a membrane — which contain hydraulic fluid.

A motor-powered pump shifts the fluid through the chambers; forcing blood to channel through the opposite section.

The membrane is constructed with cow tissue, and it is hoped that by using material better suited to a biological environment, patients will become less dependent on anti-coagulation medication.

Valves obtained from cows are also used in conjunction with pressure sensors that monitor a patient’s condition and adjust the rate of blood flow depending on activity — including when the user is exercising.

Alain Carpentier

If proven to be effective, the new design could be used to give patients who may have to wait years for a heart transplant extra time and a better quality of life.

Artificial hearts generally fail after a few years due to the task of pumping over 100,000 times or more a day, but even this stopgap measure could be used to save lives.

The system was developed through collaboration between the European Aerospace and Defense Systems (EADS) and French cardiac surgeon Alain Carpentier.

NASA ISS Emergency EVA: Expedition 35 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy

Expedition 35 Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy (pictured) and Tom Marshburn (out of frame) completed a spacewalk at 2:14 p.m. EDT May 11, 2013. 

The emergency EVA was needed to inspect and replace a pump controller box on the International Space Station’s far port truss (P6) leaking ammonia coolant. 

The two NASA astronauts began the 5-hour, 30-minute spacewalk at 8:44 a.m.

A leak of ammonia coolant from the area near or at the location of a Pump and Flow Control Subassembly was detected on Thursday, May 9, prompting engineers and flight controllers to begin plans to support the spacewalk. 

The device contains the mechanical systems that drive the cooling functions for the port truss.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA Shuttle Atlantis: Era’s Final ISS EVA

Spacewalker Ron Garan rides on the International Space Station's robotic arm as he transfers a failed pump module to the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis. 

Garan and fellow Expedition 28 astronaut Mike Fossum wrapped up a six-hour, 31-minute spacewalk Tuesday afternoon, performing upgrades and maintenance on the orbiting outpost.

It's the final scheduled spacewalk during a NASA Shuttle mission.

Image Credit: NASA

The Astronauts bounced between the International Space Station and the payload bay of the shuttle Atlantis during a demanding July 12 spacewalk in which they exchanged a failed thermal control system coolant pump from the orbiting science laboratory for a robotic satellite refueling demonstrator.


Though the astronauts got off to a late start at 9:22 a.m. EDT, the two men drew on their experience gained over three station assembly spacewalks in 2008 to recover. Atlantis astronaut Rex Walheim choreographed the 6-hr. 31-min. excursion.

The balky pump’s retrieval was a high priority for the Atlantis crew, who docked at the space station July 10, two days after lifting off on the STS-135 supply mission, NASA’s final shuttle flight.

The device that circulates ammonia coolant through the station’s outstretched starboard radiators failed prematurely on July 31, 2010.

The shutdown prompted a dramatic power down of the station, from which station managers recovered with a series of hastily planned spacewalks over three weeks.

 The source of the pump loss, an internal short circuit, remains unexplained. Once the hardware is back on Earth, it will undergo a failure analysis that could lead to a design change for circulation hardware.

Next, the spacewalkers hauled the boxy refueling demonstrator from the orbiter to Dextre, the two-armed Canadian robot secured to the station’s exterior. The demonstrator, developed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Canadian Space Agency, is tentatively scheduled for trials later this year.

In other activities, the spacewalkers activated the Optical Reflector Materials Experiment that was placed on the station’s starboard solar power truss in May. The collection of optical material samples is scheduled to be retrieved next year to evaluate how well they weathered vacuum, solar radiation and the effects of atomic oxygen. Each sample is a candidate for future spacecraft fabrication.

MADAM Salina Mohamed So'ot has no pulse but she is very much alive.

Madam Salina Mohamed So'ot (left) 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 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.

Older artificial hearts usually mimic the heart's pulsations.

And 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 National Heart Centre has implanted four of these new devices since May.

Because the latest model can last longer than its predecessors, possibly for years, it can potentially be used for the long-term support of patients with irreversible heart failure.