By The Straits Times | Created at 2025-03-26 01:16:36 | Updated at 2025-03-28 23:13:35
2 days ago
SYDNEY - An Australian man lived for 105 days with a titanium artificial heart that uses magnetic levitation technology before receiving a donated human heart, the longest period for a patient with the device implanted, an Australian research group has said.
The device invented by Mr Daniel Timms, founder and chief technology officer of US-Australian medical company Bivacor, uses a magnetically levitated rotor to pump blood to the body and lungs, employing technology used in maglev trains such as Japan’s Linear Chuo Shinkansen line under construction to link Tokyo and Nagoya.
Bivacor worked with international experts including Mr Toru Masuzawa, a professor at Ibaraki University in Japan and an expert in magnetic levitation technology, during the early stages of development, according to the company.
The Australian patient in his 40s with severe heart failure underwent a six-hour procedure to implant the artificial heart at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney on Nov 22, 2024, according to the research group consisting of experts from Bivacor, Monash University and other institutions.
In early February, the patient became the first in the world to be discharged from hospital with the titanium artificial heart, the research group named the Artificial Heart Frontiers Program said in a statement on March 12, adding he received a donor heart transplant earlier this month and is recovering well.
Dr Chris Hayward, cardiologist of St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, said the device would transform heart failure treatment, according to the statement.
“Within the next decade we will see the artificial heart becoming the alternative for patients who are unable to wait for a donor heart or when a donor heart is simply not available,” Dr Hayward was quoted by the statement as saying.
According to Bivacor, the no-contact suspension of the rotor enabled by magnets eliminates wear and tear. With fewer moving parts than other artificial hearts that typically involve flexing chambers or pumping diaphragms, Bivacor’s titanium heart is expected to last 10 years or more, much longer than present-day devices.
Mr Timms told Kyodo News that Mr Masuzawa of Ibaraki University and Nobuyuki Kurita, former researcher at the university and an associate professor of Gunma University, have been involved in the development of the artificial heart since October 2001 and continue collaborating with the company.
“Early on, they helped teach the principles behind Maglev systems,” Mr Timms said. “Their expertise in maglev technology has supported BiVACOR in getting to the current maglev configuration” in the device. KYODO NEWS
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