Heart gets a Utah assist

A "next-generation" artificial heart device created in Utah has been implanted in a 67-year-old man in Greece. The implant is unique among heart pump-assist devices because it has no touching internal parts and is expected to last much longer because of that design.

It will likely be early next year before the device can be used in a clinical study in the United States because of the complex Food and Drug Administration approval process. It's easier to establish a clinical trial in Europe, and many American technologies get their first human testing there for that reason.

Dr. James Long, director of the artificial heart program at LDS Hospital, was part of the surgical team that placed the pump in the abdomen of the man last Wednesday. The patient had a long history of congestive heart failure that likely would have killed him. He's now doing well, Long told a news conference Thursday at LDS Hospital.

The Greek patient needs the assistance while his heart gets strong enough to work without it, Long said. In effect, it's buying the Greek valuable time. It is not designed to be temporary for all patients.

The manufacturer, WorldHeart, bought a Utah company that has been developing the ventricular-assist device (VAD) for several years. It builds on the now long-established reputation of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), which Long and others have been implanting for years. But it also is expected to improve on them in significant ways.

During the news conference, LVAD user Jack Larsen sat at the front of the room, the click-click of his heart pump audible. One of his grandchildren calls him "Tickety Tock Grandpa," he joked. The WorldHeart rotary VAD is silent.

It's demonstrably smaller and expected to be much sturdier. The propeller is suspended in an electromagnetic field where nothing grinds on it as it pumps blood and boosts the heart's efficiency. That spinning piece is also the only moving part, making the WorldHeart VAD the only "bearingless, fully magnetically levitated implantable pump under study in clinical trials," according to a release by LDS Hospital. Clotting is also expected to be less of a problem.

The fact that it's significantly smaller makes use feasible in smaller adults and adolescents. A tiny prototype is being developed as well for use in infants and children, said Pratap Khanwilkar, who oversees work on the rotary VAD in Utah.