A trial to assess whether electricity can be used to shrink the heart of patients suffering from heart disease is being undertaken by Brit scientists. The procedure will reduce the size of the heart and improve life expectancy.
The technique involves electrically stimulating nerves leading up to the heart. The experiment has been done on rats and dogs, who were found to have been kept alive longer, the Telegraph reported.
The first human patient will be operated on im May by surgeons at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital and The Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
Heart failure affects nearly one million people in Britain.
The surgeons will fit a device similar to a pacemaker to the vagus nerve which runs to the heart. The electrical stimulation should protect the heart from the effects of the hormone adrenaline, they said.
Jay Wright, a consultant cardiologist at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, told BBC: "We're hoping it will shrink the heart, but it might not be to normal size."
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Around 100 patients will take part in the trial at 30 hospitals around the world, the report said.
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Source-IANS