A no-pulse human heart. That would make it kind of hard to check for someone’s pulse to see if they’re still alive. I wonder if you can hear the “whirrrr” if you put your ear to the chest? And does it automatically increase flow rate with activity?
13 thoughts on “Steady As She Goes”
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I’m pretty sure a rotary-pump artificial heart is not a new idea. I remember building a model of one for a junior-high science fair. I don’t recall where the concept came from, but I’m sure it was not original to me.
There was a movie called “Threshold” from 1981 with Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum. IIRC they were working on a turbine based artificial heart that had a RTG battery so it was fully implantable. Sutherland was the doc who implanted it, without permission from the hospital or the patient, when he couldn’t get a heart restarted during surgery.
Considering how painfully fast current generation artificial hearts clog up or wear out, this could be a big advance!
Now imagine a computer-controlled turboheart, optimizing blood flow and oxy content on the fly to adapt to whatever activity or environment the user might be engaging in. Sort of like fuel injection…
I first encountered the idea of a “turbine” heart with no pulse in an sf novel maybe ten years ago (Was it Scott Westerfeld’s ‘Risen Empire’ series?). It was part of a series of “enhancements” made to create a “super-soldier”; i don’t recall the rest. I do recall thinking that the absence of the pulse might have unforeseeable consequences for other body functions. But the work noted in the article seems to show none so far. Very promising.
I am more encouraged by the advances in 3D printing of muscle tissue, coupled with the idea that one’s own stem cells could be used to make the necessary cells. I see an artificial heart as a stopgap measure while awaiting a new heart, and if that heart is the person’s own tissue, so much the better.
The artificial turbine heart is an upgrade. About ten years ago a doctor patented the concept for a nuclear powered artificial heart using Curium, which has about four times the power density of plutonium and only emits alpha particles.
The University of Pittsburg has made some progress on an implantable artificial lung, which is not much bigger than a plastic bottle cap and is threaded up through the thigh into the vena cava. The artificial lung (another assist device) requires a supply of oxygen and compressesd air to inflate a balloon 300 times a minute to fan blood past the microfibers that handle gas exchange. The last I heard, it had entered human trials.
Combining all these ideas, you come up with a nuclear powered turbine heart and a small embedded lung that cracks CO2 and water back into oxygen and glucose, producing a person with no respiration or pulse who can survive as a closed system for weeks or months. If you fed the glucose to genetically engineered intestinal bacteria that produced vitamins, fats, and proteins similar to the digestive systems of rabbits and cows, the system could probably run for years on a closed cycle.
These modified humans would be useful in extreme environments like the deep oceans or Mars, where of course they’ll rebel and kick us back into the stone age saying “We don’t need no stinkin’ hearts.”
“…where of course they’ll rebel…”
Hmm…. How about we fix it so they have only a 4 year lifespan?
I’ve…seen things…you people wouldn’t believe…
Attack ships on fire off the Shoulder or Orion…
Curium, which has about four times the power density of plutonium and only emits alpha particles.
Plutonium only emits alpha particles, too (half-life 88y).
B Lewis – Naval Nuclear Power School Washout, 1985
Fascinating article. I wonder at what point high risk people will elect to have assist devices or complete replacements implanted just as some women at high genetic risk for breast cancer elect for preventative breast removal. Waiting for a heart attack other heart failure before actually implanting the device will be seen as an increasingly risky proposition for such people.
One of the problems with mechanical pump heart of any kind was the damage done to the blood cells by things such as sliding surfaces (in piston pumps), very large velocity gradients (centrifugal pumps), or physical crushing (peristaltic pumps). An Archimedes screw pump is certainly something that could solve those problems, though it surprises me that it could produce the head rise required.