The growing incidence of heart failure poses a huge health risk across the world. But here’s some good news for heart patients. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have come up with a tiny device—a clip—that claims to treat heart failure. In typical heart failure, the heart enlarges and tugs apart the mitral valve, leaving the two flaps swinging apart. As a result, the blood that is supposed to be pumped into the body backs up into the heart and lungs. The little device, called MitraClip and costing $ 30,000, repairs the mitral valve by clipping the flaps together in the middle. As part of a clinical trial, 614 heart patients received MitraClip along with medical treatment. The results showed that the clip regulated the blood flow in and out of the heart, thus saving the patients’ lives and improving quality of life. The findings were published in New England Journal of Medicine.

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Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
December 2018