Aging Heart Valves
Understanding the heart, and knowing what to listen for in diagnosing heart conditions, is critical for providing life-saving patient care.Copyright Centers for Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/other_conditions.htm
Challenge Question
Your grandmother, who has been a non-smoker and relatively healthy throughout her life, has recently noticed that she is becoming increasingly short of breath as she does simple things, such as climbing the steps in her house. She has also noticed that her heart rate increases when she does mild exercise, such as walking to the mailbox or going upstairs. What could be causing this? Is it just due to her getting older? Is there reason to be concerned? What can be done to help her?
When engineers design solutions to problems, they first gather information—background information about the system they are working with, testing and analysis data that they collect from various materials, and information from experts more familiar with the subject. To design medical devices, technologies and procedures, biomedical engineers must understand how the human body functions, as well as how disease and disorders affect the body. In addition to knowledge gained through education and experience, engineers use problem-solving skills every step of the way in designing devices, tools, products, structures and processes that improve our society.