Put Your Heart into Engineering
Our hearts are at the hub of a powerful cardiovascular system. Artificial heart valves are creative biomedical inventions that extend people's lives.Copyright (left) Medline Plus, National Institutes of Health; (right) Adam, National Library of Medicine via NSF http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/winter09/articles/winter09pg6.html http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_images.jsp?cntn_id=103066&org=NSF
Students learn all about the body's essential mighty organ, the heart, as well as the powerful blood vascular system. This includes information on the many different sizes and pervasiveness of capillaries, veins and arteries, and how they affect blood flow through the system. Then students focus on heart valves, how they work and what might cause them to fail, coming to realize the value of prosthetic heart valves, a life-saving biomedical invention. Students are asked to evaluate the different options for heart valve replacements based on performance criteria, and provide an summary of their advantages and disadvantages.
Artificial heart valves are one example of biomedical inventions that aid human health and extend human lives. Only through understanding human anatomy and biological functions have engineers been able to determine the design requirements to create successful prosthetic valves. To design artificial heart valves, engineers of many specialties (biomedical, mechanical, biochemical) must understand what is required of a device before they design and test numerous prototypes. Engineers design these life-extending devices for people whose hearts are faulty or damaged due to illness, injury or birth defect.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Identify the difference between capillaries, veins and arteries.
- Explain how human heart valves work.
- Describe a prosthetic valve and how it works.
- Explain how engineering contributes to solving problems in the body.