heart failure
The Actin Superhighway
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Credit: Andrew Lombardo and David Warshaw, University of Vermont, Burlington
What looks like a traffic grid filled with roundabouts is nothing of the sort: It’s actually a peek inside a tiny microchamber that models a complex system operating in many of our cells. The system is a molecular transportation network made of the protein actin, and researchers have reconstructed it in the lab to study its rules of the road and, when things go wrong, how it can lead to molecular traffic accidents.
This 3D super-resolution image shows the model’s silicone beads (circles) positioned in a tiny microfluidic-chamber. Suspended from the beads are actin filaments that form some of the main cytoskeletal roadways in our cells. Interestingly, a single dye creates the photo’s beautiful colors, which arise from the different vertical dimensions of a microscopic image: 300 nanometers below the focus (red), at focus (green), and 300 nanometers above the focus (blue). When a component spans multiple dimensions—such as the spherical beads—all the colors of the rainbow are visible. The technique is called 3D stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy, or STORM [1].
Wearable Ultrasound Patch Monitors Blood Pressure
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Caption: Worn on the neck, the device records central blood pressure in the carotid artery (CA), internal jugular vein (Int JV) and external jugular vein (Ext JV).
Credit: Adapted from Wang et al, Nature Biomedical Engineering
There’s lots of excitement out there about wearable devices quietly keeping tabs on our health—morning, noon, and night. Most wearables monitor biological signals detectable right at the surface of the skin. But, the sensing capabilities of the “skin” patch featured here go far deeper than that.
As described recently in Nature Biomedical Engineering, when this small patch is worn on the neck, it measures blood pressure way down in the central arteries and veins more than an inch beneath the skin [1]. The patch works by emitting continuous ultrasound waves that monitor subtle, real-time changes in the shape and size of pulsing blood vessels, which indicate rises or drops in pressure.
Wearable mHealth Device Detects Abnormal Heart Rhythms Earlier
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Caption: Woman wearing a Zio patch
Credit: Adapted from JAMA Network Summary Video
As many as 6 million Americans experience a common type of irregular heartbeat, called atrial fibrillation (AFib), that can greatly increase their risk of stroke and heart failure [1]. There are several things that can be done to lower that risk, but the problem is that a lot of folks have no clue that their heart’s rhythm is out of whack!
So, what can we do to detect AFib and get people into treatment before it’s too late? New results from an NIH-funded study lend additional support to the idea that one answer may lie in wearable health technology: a wireless electrocardiogram (EKG) patch that can be used to monitor a person’s heart rate at home.
LabTV: Curious About Heart Failure in Young Children
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Growing up in Pittsburgh, Josh Maxwell enjoyed romping around outdoors. He was an adventurous kid who liked to catch live frogs and snakes, lug them home, and surprise his parents with the latest creepy find. Maxwell rode his curiosity for nature to a bachelor’s degree in biology from Allegheny College, Meadville, PA. He then went on to earn a Ph.D. in cell and molecular physiology from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
Maxwell, the focus of our latest LabTV video, is now a research scientist in the lab of Michael Davis at Emory University, Atlanta, where he studies pediatric heart failure. Maxwell grows cardiac cells in tissue culture and tries to fix the defects that lie within. What’s driving this important research is that a heart transplant remains the only option to save the lives of many kids born with severe congenital heart problems. In addition to shortages of donated organs, undergoing such a major operation at such a tender age can take a real toll on the children and their families. Maxwell wants to be a part of discovering non-surgical alternatives to regenerate cardiac tissue and one day repair a damaged heart for a lifetime.
