Artificial Heart on the Market Soon

A French Company says they have the technology to make an artificial heart to replace a damaged or diseased heart. The company hopes to start human testing of the product in

France by the end of next year and hopes to bring the technology to the market in Europe

in 2013.

Carmet, a medical research company says they are in the final stage of preclinical testing of its totally artificial heart for patients with end-stage heart failure. The device, made of both synthetic and animal tissue, is driven by two miniature electric motors and is designed to be implanted into the patient's chest after the diseased heart is removed.

The device will cost from between $176,000 to $226,000, including the hospital and surgical expenses, for a total cost of over $315,000 US dollars.

The French company is not the first company to make artificial hearts. Based in Tucson, Arizona, the company, SynCardia, currently makes the only approved temporary artificial heart. Its device, powered by a small air compressor that can be carried in a backpack, has been implanted in more than 800 patients.

Citing World Health Organization data that shows health disease as the world leading cause

of death, the market in the U.S. and Europe could be at least 100,000 patents per year. However, because of other cost constraints, maybe only one-tenth of those patients would actually receive an artificial heart.

WHL

7-15-10

Houston

人造心臟即將投入市場

    一家法國公司日前表示將推出人造心臟技術以替代受損或存在病理的心臟。該公司計劃能在明年底開始進行臨床測試，並希望在2013年投入歐洲市場。

    卡默特做為一家醫療科研公司表示，該技術已進入最後的臨床測試階段，這種設備由動物纖維及合成材料組成，由兩個小型電動機軀使，并在病人移去心臟後移植入病人身體。

    目前，這個設備的成本位於12.6萬至22.6萬元。包括醫療和手術的費用，整個的費用共計31.5萬美元。

    人造心臟技術並非是這家法國公司首創，在美國亞歷桑那州塔克森的Syncardia公司，目前是唯一獲得批准生產臨時人造心臟的公司。這種設備由一個放在背包中的小型的空氣壓縮機來提供能量，已經為800個病人提供了這項技術。

    根據世界健康組織的資料顯示，心臟疾病已經成為導致人類死亡的主要殺手。每年，美國及歐洲至少有10萬人死亡該疾病，然而，由於受到成本限制，只有不到十分之一的病人才能獲得人造心臟。