Latest research- autologous atrial tissue patch to repair damaged ventricle after MI

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

I met some interesting post graduate students today up at the mountain while snowboarding. They were biophysiology majors. One of them is currently researching autologous tissue which is harvested from the atrium that is around the aorta. She told me that the tissue from that area of the heart is rather non-specific. They are doing animal experimentation now (I hope humanely). The procedure is to harvest the tissue and fashion a patch of sorts to repair the damaged ventricle after an MI. We had a fascinating conversation. They are making breakthroughs on the next generation of cardiac interventions.

Has anyone heard about this? The fellow she was with is involved in a different speciality of infectious disease control. They are working on a new generation of antibiotics that organisms would be unable to mutate a resistance to.

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

Another interesting facet of their research involves the often hereditary ventricular hypertrophy syndrome that causes sudden cardiac death in young people. There is a faulty gene that alters the way calcium uptake is metabolized on the cellular level, she told me. Because of that, it causes the heart to beat so powerfully as to cause the muscle to build up over time, she said (I'm fudging on the details here, but that was the gist of it)

They are doing work on gene therapy for that, she said. With widespread screening these cases could be treated preventatively.