IIT Ropar Prof will bring Next Gen Cost-Effective Prosthetic Mechanical Heart Valve
KS Diwan/ royalpatiala.in/ Rupnagar
Dr. Chandi Sasmal, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Ropar awarded with Early Career Research Award from Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB), Govt. of India. The project is based on Study and Design of a Cost-Effective Prosthetic Mechanical Heart Valve. The aim of the project is to develop an artificial heart valve with the latest technology but in a cost-effective way.
The project has been sanctioned initially for three years and it could be extended for two years more depending upon its progress. A total budget of Rs. 45, 57,820 has been sanctioned to pursue this project.
According to the statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012, 17.6 million people died because of the cardiovascular diseases (CVD) worldwide which accounts for 31.43% of the total global mortality. These cardiovascular diseases have also become the leading cause of mortality in India. According to the Global Burden of Disease study age-standardized estimates (2010), nearly a quarter (24.8%) of all deaths in India are attributable to CVD, and this number is ballooning day by day. For instance, the deaths caused due to the CVD in India are increased by 59% from 1990 to 2010 (23.2 million to 37 million). One of the main reasons for these cardiovascular diseases in India is the rheumatic fever. This fever can damage the heart valves which is known as rheumatic heart disease (RHD). This heart disease is usually a disease of poverty associated with overcrowding, poor sanitation and other social determinants of poor health, and it generally occurs in young children. Once this disease becomes severe, then one has to go for the replacement of the heart valve as there is no other option. However, apart from the valve replacement surgery, the cost of the present artificial valves that are available in the market is itself out of the hand for the people, especially for the people who are below the poverty line.
Dr. Sasmal added that, “Every year millions of people worldwide are affected by the valvular heart disease. This disease is characterized by the damage or defect in one or more than one of our heart valves. Several reasons could trigger this disease, and among those, the most important causes are the congenital abnormalities, consequences of aging, the occurrence of specific diseases like the rheumatic fever and pregnancy. This dysfunction or damage in any heart valve, very often, necessitates its replacement either with an artificial mechanical heart valve or with a bioprosthetic heart valve. For a relatively younger patient, the mechanical heart valve is preferred as it has long durability than the bioprosthetic valve. However, it has the generic problem of damaging the healthy blood cells of our blood due to the interaction with the valve material. This causes a local blood clotting which can again result in the heart attack or stroke (this phenomenon is called the thrombosis phenomena). Till now, all the commercial artificial mechanical heart valves that are available in the market are not 100% free from this problem, and this forces a valvular patient to go for a lifelong anti-coagulation therapy to minimize this local blood clotting. However, this anti-coagulation therapy again can cause many life-threatening complications like exsanguinations, hemorrhagic stroke, etc.
