Some patients who have heart valve implants suffer severe blood clots, and researchers at the University of Waterloo helped to lead a worldwide effort that minimises the risk.
Working with a team from
the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, researchers from Waterloo's
Faculty of Engineering demonstrated that a heart valve implant with a textured
surface is less likely to cause blood clots (or thrombosis).
Blood clots in the heart
can lead to life-threatening events such as stroke or heart attack. Patients
with heart valve implants undergo lifelong therapy to avoid thrombosis. The
researchers' new findings are expected to improve health outcomes for many
patients. Certain conditions such as cancer, pregnancy, being over the age of
55, smoking, obesity and immobility all elevate the risk of blood clots after
the procedure.
"The implantation
of a prosthetic heart valve is a life-saving procedure, but due to some medical
conditions in patients who receive the valves they experience blood clotting,
which can be very dangerous," said Dr. Sushanta Mitra, a professor in
Waterloo's Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and executive
director of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology. "We used a method
to understand how blood will interact with the valves and tested which types of
valves are most likely to last longest without blood clots."
The Waterloo work was
led by Dr. Mitra and Dr. Sudip Shyam, a postdoctoral fellow in the Micro
Nano-Scale Transport Lab. They developed an innovative technique that closely
resembles conditions inside the body to determine the wettability -- the
ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a solid surface -- of solid
objects submerged under liquid. When the Dutch medical team developed their
textured heart valve, they asked the Waterloo engineers to conduct tests on
their implant's reliability with positive results.
"Patients won't
need to have replacement valves as often thanks to this research," Mitra
said. "They will have a better quality of life post-surgery, and it will
extend the length of time required between procedures."
No comments:
Post a Comment