STATION ABC National Radio PROGRAM Tony Delroy DATE 3 August...

STATION

ABC National Radio

PROGRAM
Tony Delroy

DATE
3 August 2004

TIME
11.14pm

SUMMARY
Discussion the VentrAssist heart pump.



Interview with Tim Thwaites, New Scientist.




TONY DELROY ¡V PRESENTER:

Also, blood clots could be a thing of the past, thanks to an Australian pump designed to be implanted right alongside the heart.

Now, apparently there is a strange side effect. There¡¦s apparently, no pulse.



TIM THWAITES ¡V NEW SCIENTIST:

No pulse. And that¡¦s part of the reason ¡K how this thing works. This is a pump made ¡K it¡¦s being tested at the Alfred Hospital at the moment, made by a company called Ventracor. The pump¡¦s called VentrAssist, because it is not something that¡¦s put in in place of the heart, but it¡¦s implanted alongside the heart to assist the heart.



And artificial heart pumps in the past have been designed, effectively, to take over the role of the heart ¡K



DELROY:

Mmm.



THWAITES:

¡Kand to work in the same way, so that they pump in a pulse-like way like the heart pumps. One of the problems, apparently, of that is that the blood, effectively, stops and starts. And, in some places, it actually pools and starts to clot.



This new pump is designed more like a washing machine. It actually has an impellor that keeps the blood circulating, and it¡¦s designed in a, sort of ¡K a circular way, so that the blood actually enters it and then spirals around and comes out a spout a the side. And it never stops moving. And the unusual side-effect, of course, is that you don¡¦t have a pulse.



DELROY:

Isn¡¦t that spooky?



[Laughter]



THWAITES:

Well, apparently it¡¦s working extremely well. There¡¦s one patient in Melbourne who¡¦s had one of these things in for more than thirteen months, and it¡¦s ¡K at the moment, only hopefully being used as something to keep patients alive while they¡¦re awaiting a transplant. But this guy¡¦s been, obviously, waiting a long time, and the pump¡¦s been working well and, apparently, it¡¦s taken him from a very sick person in hospital to somebody who¡¦s able to live in his own home. It¡¦s not ideal, but it¡¦s working.



DELROY:

Yeah, some great Aussie ingenuity there. An Australian pump designed to be implanted right alongside the heart. But, I guess, the no pulse is a little bit of a strange one (laughs). But I ¡K as you say, it¡¦s probably only a temporary measure as people await for surgery.



THWAITES:

Well, I should also add one thing to this, and that is that it¡¦s been such a success here, it¡¦s now being tested in Europe for inclusion over there, and there¡¦s also American interest in this thing.



DELROY:

Excellent.



END OF SEGMENT