MediTech

NON-SURGICAL HEART VALVE REPLACEMENT

Patients with congenital heart disease will have a chance at a treatment without a major open heart surgery. Cardi-ologists at the Rush University Medical Center has developed a minimally-invasive trans-catheter valve replacement. Patients involved in a clinical trial had this implant, and are presently recovering. This gives hope to patients that would otherwise undergo multiple open heart surgeries. The valve replacement procedure uses a bovine pericardial heart valve that is compressed into a balloon as small as a pencil, threaded from a major vein in the leg into the cir-culatory system, and is deployed across the pulmonary valve.

SPINAL CORD INJURY, STEM CELL AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

Scar tissues develop around a spinal cord injury, blocking neuron fibers that are supposed to repair the damaged site. Researchers from Northwestern University developed a nano-engineered gel that prevents the formation of scar tissue, allowing neuron stem cells to penetrate the inured site and grow nerve fibers. The gel also instructs stem cells to produce myelin, instead of producing scar tissues. This technology has shown positive results with mice ex-periments. A mice that has spinal cord injury was able to use their hind legs in walking six weeks after being injected with the gel. Although not all treatments in mice works in humans, there is still a possibility that it could work.

Student Focus | 1st Edition

By Muhammad Sheraz Alam

D.P.T, College of Physiotherapy

K.E.M.U Lahore

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