This is a post on the NxRev Site.
Nearly 20 million people suffer from debilitating heart conditions, with over 2 million added to that list each year. Many of these people could use heart transplants — but there are precious few to go around. This leaves them with no alternative but to wait until one becomes available.
That depressing statistic spurred researchers in the Department of Radiology and Biological Engineering at the University of Tokyo to take action.
In Japan, the average transplant recipient waits 981 days to receive their new heart — over two and a half years. The team at the University of Tokyo set out to make that wait time easier by creating an artificial heart that can perform as well as a real heart, or in the very least, can enable them to survive until a suitable donor is found.
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