Bangalore: An American University is developing and testing a "heart replacement device", which is lighter and expected to have a longer lifespan of up to 15 years than two years of present generation devices.

Being developed by Dr James W Long of the artificial heart programme of Utah University, the device weighing about 550 grams and with a diameter of 75 mm is undergoing animal test trials in the US.

"The device provides much better blood handling than the existing technology," Long told reporters in Bangalore on September 4.

Stating that the device, which has electronics to make it highly reliable, he said it was a small, bearingless rotary blood pump, without valves and had only one moving part, the rotor that was suspended and rotated by magnetic field at a speed of 2,500 rounds per minute (RPM).

Long, who is in Bangalore to discuss with the city-based Manipal Heart Foundation for their artificial heart programme, said the device would be ready for human trials in two years.

Lauding the talent and expertise of Indians, he said innovative approaches and cost-effective methods adopted by Indian engineers and doctors could drive the cost down of these devices and implants from the present $ 60,000 to less than half.

Manipal Heart Foundation has decided to use electronic devices developed by medical scientists that act as a bridge to heart transplants, and keep the patient alive until a heart becomes available, it said in a statement.

PTI