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Cardiovascular deaths are the leading cause of death worldwide and account for more than 30% of deaths that occur annually.
This implies a great demand for solutions, so any scientific advance that occurs in this area is always welcome, whatever it may be.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a bionic heart with which to test artificial valves and other heart devices to improve their production and quality.
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The device is a real biological heart that has been tuned by replacing muscle tissue with artificial heart muscles, which perfectly mimic the movements of the heart to carry blood throughout the body.
This artificial heart is capable of imitating the heartbeat realistically enough to be able to reliably check these devices and thus avoid experimenting on animals.
The regulatory tests required to approve the use of these devices require extensive fatigue tests that are normally done on animals.
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With this artificial heart we not only stop teasing the animals but also the tests can be done faster and the necessary improvements can be applied more easily.
In this way we kill two birds with one stone, save human lives and while we stop bothering the animals.
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