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OSU Using Live Organs To Study Irregular Human Heartbeats

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
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.

Ohio State University researchers are using live human hearts to study better ways to detect and treat irregular heartbeats.

Mike Foley reports.

Biologist Vadim Fedorov developed the technique at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center. Upon receiving a donated heart from a transplant patient, his team has about 12 hours to prepare and collect the data. Scientists take the top portions, known as the atria, and place them in a dish surrounded by four high-speed optical cameras. Researchers revive the tissue and inject it with a special dye that detects electrical signals. While standard imaging provides – at most - a couple hundred recordings of the heart, Federov says the cameras used in his technique deliver 40,000 recordings, all in 3D. Ohio State electrophysiologist Dr. John Hummel says it’s an important contribution to the study of atrial fibrillation, the most common type of heart arrhythmia.

“The day is coming where we can leverage that knowledge into ways to identify definitively which regions in a human being’s heart are responsible not only for triggering atrial fibrillation but for maintaining it, sustaining it.”

Researchers a-fib affects about six million people in the U.S. - and when not treated properly can lead to blood clots, stroke and heart failure. 

Mike Foley joined WCBE in February 2000, coming from WUFT in Gainesville, Florida. Foley has worked in various roles, from producing news and feature stories to engineering Live From Studio A sessions. A series of music features Foley started in 2018 called Music Journeys has grown into a podcast and radio show. He also assists in developing other programs in WCBE's Podcast Experience. Foley hosts The Morning Mix, a weekday music show featuring emerging and established musicians, our Columbus-area and Ohio-based talent, and additional artists that inspire him.
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