Renderings of an implanted Carmat artificial heart
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Last Wednesday in Paris, a 75 year-old man received an artificial heart. That in itself might not be newsworthy, as such devices have been in use since the early 80s. In this case, however, the gadget in question was the first Carmat bioprosthetic artificial heart to ever be implanted in a human. According to its inventor, cardiac surgeon Alain Carpentier, it's the world's first self-regulating artificial heart.
When Carpentier uses the term "self-regulating," he refers to the Carmat's ability to speed up or slow down its flow rate based on the patient’s physiological needs – if they're performing a vigorous physical activity, for instance, the heart will respond by beating faster. This is made possible via "multiple miniature embedded sensors" and proprietary algorithms running on its integrated microprocessor.
Most other artificial hearts, by contrast, beat at a constant unchanging rate. This means that patients either have to avoid too much activity, or risk becoming breathless and exhausted quickly.
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