Irish Researchers Develop New Model to Help Treat Heart Failure
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Irish researchers develop new model to help treat heart failure:
Developed at RCSI, the new 'mock circulatory loop' model can mimic both a healthy heart and a heart in failure to help device testing.
Researchers in Ireland have reached a milestone in heart health research with a new lab-based model to test devices that treat patients with an increasingly common form of heart failure.
There are two common types of heart failure in humans: one with preserved ejection fraction and the other with reduced ejection fraction. Ejection fraction is the measurement used to determine the heart's ability to pump oxygen-rich blood through the body.
In recent years, heart failure with preserved or normal ejection fraction has become more common among patients, likely due to an increase in the prevalence of common risk factors such as old age, high blood pressure and obesity. Women are at great risk of it than men.
Developed at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in collaboration with the National College of Art and Design, the new model called 'mock circulatory loop' mimic both a healthy heart and a heart in failure with preserved ejection fraction.
The model enables potential heart failure treatment devices to be examined in terms of their effect on both chambers in the left side of the heart.
It can test devices to examine the left atrium, the top chamber responsible for receiving oxygen-rich blood from the lungs, as well as the left ventricle, the lower chamber responsible for pumping the oxygen-rich blood around the body.
The research was published in the Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine journal last month.
Journal Reference:
Malone, Andrew, Gallagher, Sean, Saidi, Jemil, et al. In vitro benchtop mock circulatory loop for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction emulation, Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine (DOI: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.910120)
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