Reanimating human hearts: Ohio State is taking it to the next level

A portion of a donated human heart is kept alive and beating in a laboratory at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Researchers reanimate the heart to look for hidden sources of irregular heartbeats. [Image from Ohio State]

Ohio State University researchers have figured out a way to reanimate human hearts in order to gain a better understanding of irregular heartbeats.

“It’s amazing. You can see the heart start beating again, which gives us an opportunity to study it with high-speed, high-tech equipment,” said Vadim Fedorov, an OSU biologist who developed the technique, in a press release. “This allows us to see the heart in 3D and search for sources of irregular beats that we’ve never been able to find.”

The hearts were donated from patients who were set to receive a new heart. The researchers used the top part of the heart, the atria, and placed them in a dish that had 4 high-speed optical cameras around it. The tissues were reanimated for 12 hours and injected with a dye that detects electrical signals.

Get the full story on our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing.

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