Posts Tagged ‘EKG’

Medical Breakthrough: The Beatless Heart

Written by Michael Awada on . Posted in Science, Technology

Heart complications have been plagued humanity since the dawn of time. 300,000 people with heart disease die each year. Options to fix various heart conditions have been severely limited. Even with advancements in heart transplant science, the supply of available organs cannot come close to meeting the demand. There are currently over 100,000 patients waitlisted to receive an annual supply of 2,200 hearts. That means that only 2.2% of people who need a heart will get one.

beatless

Normally the human heart pumps blood throughout our system using a set of cardiac muscles. These muscles subconsciously squeeze and push blood through each of our four chambers in a coordinated fashion. Each muscular squeeze allows for efficient blood circulation through the body, and can be heard as a beat.