The Heart: Heart disease and stroke news and discussions

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How pathogenic gene variants lead to heart failure
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08- ... ilure.html
by Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine

Cardiomyopathy is not a uniform disease. Rather, individual genetic defects lead to heart failure in different ways, an international consortium reports in Science.

The molecular and cellular mechanisms that lead to heart failure in people with cardiomyopathy are determined by the specific gene variant that each patient carries, according to newly published research based on the first comprehensive single-cell analysis of cardiac cells from healthy and failing hearts.

The work, reported in the journal Science, was conducted by 53 scientists from six countries in North America, Europe, and Asia.

The study shows that cell type compositions and gene activation profiles change according to the genetic variants. The investigators say the findings can inform the design of targeted therapies that take into account each patient's underlying gene defect responsible for their particular form of cardiomyopathy.

The team studied 880,000 single heart cells

Examining the genes activated in about 880,000 single cells from 61 failing hearts and 18 healthy donor hearts as reference was a complex endeavor which required an interdisciplinary team. The organs were procured by the Brigham and Woman's Hospital in Boston, U.S., University of Alberta in Canada, the Heart and Diabetes Center North Rhine-Westphalia in Bad Oeynhausen, Ruhr University Bochum in Germany and Imperial College London, UK.

Senior authors who spearheaded the project are Christine Seidman, professor of medicine and genetics at Harvard Medical School and a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital; Jonathan Seidman, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School; Norbert Hübner, professor of cardiovascular and metabolic sciences at the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin as well as Dr. Gavin Oudit, University of Alberta, Canada; Professor Hendrik Milting, Heart and Diabetes Center NRW, Bad Oeynhausen, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany; Dr. Matthias Heinig, Helmholtz Munich, Germany; Dr. Michela Noseda of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, UK and Professor Sarah Teichmann, Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK. Joint first authors are Dr. Daniel Reichart (Harvard), Eric Lindberg and Dr. Henrike Maatz (both MDC).

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Population-based study: Autoimmune disorders increase risk of cardiovascular disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08- ... sease.html
by KU Leuven

About 10% of the population in high income regions like Europe and the United States has been diagnosed with one or multiple autoimmune disorders. Examples are rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, systemic sclerosis, lupus erythematosus and type I diabetes. Although earlier research has suggested associations between some of these disorders and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, these studies were often too small and limited to selected autoimmune or selected cardiovascular conditions to draw conclusive evidence on the necessity of cardiovascular disease prevention among patients with autoimmune disease, until now.

At the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology, held this weekend in Barcelona, an international research team led by KU Leuven presented the outcome of a thorough epidemiological investigation into possible links between 19 of the most common autoimmune disorders and cardiovascular disease. The results of the study show that patients with autoimmune disease have a substantially higher risk (between 1.4 and 3.6 times depending on which autoimmune condition) of developing cardiovascular disease than people without an autoimmune disorder. This excess risk is comparable to that of type 2 diabetes, a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The research shows for the first time that cardiovascular risks affect autoimmune disease as a group of disorders, rather than selected disorders individually.

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New type of defibrillator met safety, effectiveness goals in global clinical study

by Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08- ... goals.html

A new type of extravascular implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) using a lead (thin wire) placed behind the sternum met safety and effectiveness goals for participants in a premarket global clinical study. The device effectively terminated acute and chronic life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. The findings were presented during a late-breaking session at the European Society of Cardiology Congress and were simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Arrhythmias such as ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia happen in the lower heart chambers, or ventricles. They are dangerous because they interfere with the normal coordinated filling and pumping of blood through the heart. These arrhythmias can cause collapse and death if not rapidly treated. The ability of ICDs to accurately detect and terminate ventricular arrhythmias in high-risk patients saves lives.

For study participants, the lead of the extravascular ICD was inserted under the sternum, compared to transvenous ICD leads that are inserted through the veins into the heart, or subcutaneous ICDs that have a lead placed beneath the skin above the sternum. Patients with prior open-heart surgery, or who required pacing for a slow heart rate or had a pacemaker, were not candidates for this study.

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Residential exposure to petroleum refining could be related to strokes in the southern US
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-residenti ... thern.html
by Institute of Physics

A new study has revealed that exposure to pollutants from petroleum refineries has a strong link to stroke rates across the Southern United States. The results were published today in Environmental Research Letters.

The southern United States (US) has a high concentration of petroleum production and refining (PPR). This process emits multiple pollutants which have previously been linked to diseases which lead to strokes. However, the relationship between residential exposure to PPR and their link to causing strokes was not previously well studied, until now.

"The geographic concentration of economic sectors, and their associated by-products, is an underexplored, plausible risk factor for stroke. By-products of petroleum production and refining include a mixture of pollutants that may impact the quality of adjacent air, soil, and potable water in residential areas," explains Honghyok Kim, lead author of the study, who will join the University of Illinois at Chicago as an Assistant Professor in September.

Researchers from Yale University, Brown University and Seoul National University have investigated the association between petroleum exposure and the number of strokes in adults. The team took data from the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the US's Population Level Analysis and Community EStimates (PLACES) for seven southern US states and looked at areas within a 2.5 km or 5 km radius of petrol refineries. In these areas, the presence of sulfur dioxide—a chemical which may increase the risk of stroke—is high as it is a pollutant of PPR. They found that living near petrol refineries accounted for 5.6% of strokes in adults. This number differs by state with Mississippi having petrol refineries potentially explaining the prevalence of strokes to the highest degree (11.7%). This number further differs by census tract with one census tract located in Texas having the highest prevalence of strokes potentially explained by petrol refineries (25.3%).

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Better screening could predict and prevent sudden cardiac death in young people
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... young.html
by Public Library of Science

Nearly nine in ten cases of sudden cardiac death (SCD) due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in young people are preceded by symptoms, ECG abnormalities or a positive family history, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Erik Börjesson of Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden, and colleagues. Those findings suggest that expanding cardiac screening beyond competitive athletes could aid in the prevention of SCD in the young population with HCM.

HCM is a genetic cardiovascular disease believed to affect one in 500 individuals in the general population. While sudden death due to HCM is rare, it is still a major cause of natural death in the young. Identifying at-risk patients can reduce the risk of SCD in young individuals with HCM, for example by exercise restriction and drug therapies. Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) can also prevent deaths and improve quality of life. For instance, after suffering an on-field cardiac arrest last year, Danish footballer Christian Eriksen was able to return to playing eight months later with an ICD.

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Death rate for torn aorta drops, still five times more deadly without surgery, study finds
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... rgery.html
by Noah Fromson, University of Michigan

The chance of a patient living after tearing their aorta has improved significantly, but the condition remains deadly if not recognized early and repaired surgically, a study finds.

A team of researchers examined early mortality rates for over 5,600 patients admitted to the hospital and examined hourly with type A acute aortic dissection between 1996 and 2018 from the International Registry for Acute Aortic Dissection. The often-fatal dissection occurs when blood rushes through a tear in the ascending aorta, causing its layers to separate.

Findings published in JAMA Cardiology reveal that 5.8% of patients with type A acute aortic dissection died within the first two days after hospital arrival, a mortality rate of 0.12% per hour. The rate is significantly lower than that reported in the 1950s, which estimated that 37% of patients died within the first 48 hours, with an increasing mortality rate of 1-2% per hour.

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Inhibitor of lipid kinase PI3KC2a identified as potential new treatment of thrombosis
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-inhibitor ... ntial.html
by Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie

The lipid kinase PI3KC2a is a potential pharmacological target for the treatment of thrombosis and, possibly, cancer. Researchers from the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) have now identified a potent inhibitor of its activity that serves as a lead for further drug development.

Thrombosis including venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism with an annual incidence of about 1 in 1,000 adults is a major threat for human health, in particular during old age. To counteract blood clotting, patients take blood thinning medication, which, however, often display severe side-effects such as bleeding (hemorrhage).

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Stopping aspirin when on a blood thinner lowers risk of bleeding, study finds
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... owers.html
by University of Michigan

If you're already taking one blood thinner, mounting research suggests you might not need to take a second one.

In fact, when patients who are on a commonly prescribed blood thinner stop taking aspirin, their risk of bleeding complications drops significantly, a Michigan Medicine study finds.

Researchers analyzed over 6,700 people treated at anticoagulation clinics across Michigan for venous thromboembolism, or blood clots, as well as atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm that can cause stroke. Patients were treated with the common blood thinner warfarin but also took aspirin despite not having history of heart disease.

"We know that aspirin is not a panacea drug as it was once thought to be and can in fact lead to more bleeding events in some of these patients, so we worked with the clinics to reduce aspirin use among patients for whom it might not be necessary," said Geoffrey Barnes, M.D., senior author of the study and a cardiologist at the University of Michigan Health Frankel Cardiovascular Center.

Over the course of the study intervention, aspirin use among patients decreased by 46.6%. With aspirin used less commonly, the risk of a bleeding complication dropped by 32.3%—amounting to one major bleeding event prevented per every 1,000 patients who stop taking aspirin. Results are published in JAMA Network Open.

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Large study of thoracic aortic aneurysm backs guidelines
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... lines.html
by Kaiser Permanente

A large, new Kaiser Permanente study provides high-quality evidence that most of the 33,000 patients diagnosed each year in the U.S. with a thoracic aortic aneurysm—a bulge in the part of the main artery that runs through the chest—are not likely to experience an aortic dissection and may not need open-heart surgery.

"We built the largest-ever cohort of patients with thoracic aortic aneurysm to study their natural history," said lead author Matthew D. Solomon, MD, Ph.D., a physician researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research and a Kaiser Permanente cardiologist.

"This research was critical because of the lack of evidence to guide clinicians and the ongoing debate in the field as to how large an aneurysm should be before recommending a patient undergo a very high-risk surgery."

The study, published October 5 in JAMA Cardiology, is the largest to date to support the current consensus guidelines that recommend surgery for most patients with a thoracic aneurysm that is 5.5 centimeters or larger. These guidelines are specific to patients who do not have certain genetic conditions that increase their risk of experiencing an aortic aneurysm or dissection.

The study included 6,372 Kaiser Permanente patients in Northern California who were identified as having a thoracic aortic aneurysm between 2000 and 2016. Of these, 6,092 (96%) were diagnosed with an aneurysm that was initially less than 5.5 centimeters, and 280 (4%) were initially diagnosed with an aneurysm 5.5 centimeters or larger.

All the patients were enrolled in a computerized population management system to ensure they received appropriate, ongoing imaging to assess the size and growth of their aneurysm. None had a genetic syndrome known to increase risk for an aortic aneurysm or dissection.

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AI-enabled eye scan delivers stroke and heart disease risk scores
By Rich Haridy
October 06, 2022
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/a ... sk-scores/

A team of researchers in the UK has developed a fully automated artificial intelligence-enabled system that can scan retinal images for vascular health, helping identify those at high risk of heart disease and stroke.

The old adage "the eyes are windows to the soul" isn’t that far off when considering how much one can infer about a person’s general health by studying their eyes. Diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and hyperthyroidism can be detected in the eyes, and recent innovations suggest neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s could be diagnosable through retinal scanning.

Considering how sensitive blood vessels in the eye can be to general cardiovascular changes, researchers have long studied the relationship between retinal features and conditions such as diabetes or coronary artery disease. With the advent of computerized systems that can automatically identify minute differences in a person’s retinal vasculature researchers are now closing in on a new kind of diagnostic tool.

The AI system is dubbed QUARTZ ((QUantitative Analysis of Retinal vessels Topology and siZe) and a new study put the algorithm to the test on more than 88,000 retinal images from two large ongoing population health studies. Each person included in the study had an average of seven to nine years of follow-up data, allowing the researchers to evaluate the predictive capacity of the system.

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Cardiovascular disease risks the same in both sexes
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... sexes.html
by University of Gothenburg

For men and women, the risk factors for cardiovascular disease are largely the same, an extensive global study involving University of Gothenburg researchers shows.

The study, now published in The Lancet, includes participants in both high-income and medium- and low-income countries. Cardiovascular disease is more widespread in the latter. The data were taken from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological (PURE) Study.

The study comprised 155,724 individuals in 21 countries, in five continents. Aged 35–70 years, the participants had no history of cardiovascular disease when they joined the study. All cases of fatal cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke, and heart failure during the follow-up period, which averaged ten years, were registered.

The risk factors studied were metabolic (such as high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes), behavioral (tobacco smoking and diet), and psychosocial (economic status and depression).

No clear gender or income divide

Metabolic risk factors were found to be similar in both sexes, except for high values of low-density lipoprotein (LDL, often known as bad cholesterol), where the association with cardiovascular disease was stronger in men. In the researchers' opinion, however, this finding needs confirmation in more studies.

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Polluting particles in the air are linked to cardiac arrests
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11- ... rdiac.html
by Duke-NUS Medical School

Small particles in air pollution in Singapore might have caused sudden cardiac arrests in some people who were not in hospital but simply going about their normal lives, according to scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School working with the National Environment Agency (NEA) as part of the Pan-Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study (PAROS).

Published in The Lancet Public Health, this finding, which is based on data collected between 2010 and 2018, resolves the uncertainty caused by inconsistencies in earlier studies due to limitations in the availability and quality of environmental and disease data.

The study team, which comprises members from NEA's Environmental Health Institute and the Environmental Monitoring and Modeling Division of the Clean Environment Group, assessed whether there was a correlation between out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) and the levels of tiny air pollution particles that are at least 25 times smaller than the width of a human hair. This PM2.5 category of particulate matter is known from previous research to significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular, respiratory and even ocular diseases.

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Genetic tests could identify people at risk of heart disease, NHS study finds

Mon 7 Nov 2022 16.00 GMT

GPs in the north of England have used predictive genetic tests to identify people most at risk of heart disease in the world’s first pilot of the technology.

The NHS study, called Heart, offered genetic tests to nearly 1,000 people aged 45 to 64, in the hope of better predicting their risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years.

Doctors at 12 GP surgeries in the north-east and north Cumbria found that the calculated risk of heart disease based on routine measures such as family history, blood pressure, body mass index and smoking status changed for about a quarter of participants when their DNA was taken into account.

In 13% of cases, GPs said the shift in heart disease risk was substantial enough for them to change their management of the patient, for example by recommending cholesterol-lowering statins.

Prof Sir Peter Donnelly, the founder and chief executive of Genomics, the company that developed the genetic tests, said a further 700,000 people in England aged 45 to 64 had a high enough risk of heart disease to be recommended statins, but were “invisible to the NHS” because existing assessments failed to identify them. Modelling by the company suggests that giving the drugs to this group could prevent 11,000 cardiovascular events in 10 years.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... tudy-finds

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Babies born to mothers with preeclampsia found to be at increased risk of stroke and heart disease later in life
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11- ... heart.html
by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Sweden, Finland and Denmark has found evidence that suggests babies born to mothers with preeclampsia have an increased risk of a stroke and/or heart disease later in life.

In their paper published in JAMA Network Open, the group describes studying millions of births in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden from the 1970s and 1980s and following the health patterns of the babies as they aged.

Preeclampsia is a condition involving blood pressure elevation and heightened levels of proteins in urine that can damage kidneys and sometimes other organs of pregnant women. Preeclampsia tends to occur later in pregnancy, though it can sometimes happen earlier. Preeclampsia has been found to stymie fetal growth if not properly treated by causing problems in the arteries that carry blood in the placenta. In this new effort, the researchers have found that it can also lead to other health problems for the baby later in life.

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Pulmonary arterial hypertension is incurable but animal model study suggests an experimental drug may be effective
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-12- ... nimal.html
by Delthia Ricks , Medical Xpress

An experimental drug that is already in clinical trials for other diseases could disrupt a positive feedback loop that exacerbates pulmonary arterial hypertension, a dangerous and rapidly fatal condition for which there is no cure.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension develops when small arteries inside the lungs become unusually stiff, leading to dangerously high blood pressure and eventual heart failure. The stiffening and remodeling of pulmonary arteries also causes excessive cell growth and proliferation of pulmonary arterial vascular smooth muscle cells. This manifestation irrevocably damages the lungs and impairs breathing.

Patients experience shortness of breath, dizziness, and chest pressure. Despite a combination of medications and oxygen therapy, which ameliorate symptoms, the condition inevitably worsens and quality of life declines.

"Pulmonary arterial hypertension is partially driven by the proliferation of pulmonary arterial vascular smooth muscle cells induced by stiffening of pulmonary arteries," reports Dr. Yuanjun Shen, lead author of a new study in the journal Science Signaling.

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Identifying new genetic variants linked to heart failure
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01- ... ilure.html
by Olivia Dimmer, Northwestern University

Scientists have identified new genetic variants linked to heart failure, according to a study published in Nature Communications.

The study, which analyzed the genomes and ancestries of more than 115,000 patients experiencing heart failure, details 47 risk loci in the human genome where genetic variants may indicate an increased risk of heart failure. Additionally, investigators identified nine circulating proteins associated with heart failure or specific quantitative imaging traits.

The discovery highlights the importance of common genetic variations in the pathogenesis of heart failure, said Megan Roy-Puckelwartz, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pharmacology and a co-author of the study.

"This study opens up new ways to think about heart failure," Puckelwartz said. "These loci now become a target for treatment and because we also show the strength of association between heart failure and these cardiometabolic imaging traits, we can use these as markers to determine someone's risk of heart failure."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 6.2 million Americans have some form of heart failure—meaning that the heart cannot pump enough blood to support the body, but the heart does not fully stop beating.

Heart failure is common, and the role that genetics play in the condition is complex. Prior to this study, only 11 common risk loci for heart failure had been identified using genome-wide association, a research method that links genetic variants across the genome with heart failure.

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Viagra lowers the risk of heart disease in men by up to 39 percent. And men who take the drug also appear less likely to suffer an early death from any cause. Research looked at 70,000 adult men with an average age of 52, all of whom had an erectile dysfunction diagnosis at some point in their life.


Effect of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors on major adverse cardiovascular events and overall mortality in a large nationwide cohort of men with erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular risk factors: A retrospective, observational study based on healthcare claims and national death index data
https://academic.oup.com/jsm/article/20 ... ogin=false
Robert A Kloner, MD, PhD, Eric Stanek, Pharm D, Christopher L Crowe, MPH, Mukul Singhal, PhD, Rebecca S Pepe, MPH, Julia Bradsher, PhD, MBA, Raymond C Rosen, PhD
The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Volume 20, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages 38–48, https://doi.org/10.1093/jsxmed/qdac005
Published:
13 January 2023
Article history

Treatment with phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE-5is) is effective in treating erectile dysfunction (ED).
Aim

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of PDE-5is on the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular (CV) events (MACE; composite outcome of CV death, hospitalization for myocardial infarction, coronary revascularization, stroke, heart failure, and unstable angina pectoris) and overall mortality.
Methods

A retrospective observational cohort study was conducted in a large US claims database in men with ≥1 diagnosis of ED without prior MACE within 1 year, from January 1, 2006, to October 31, 2020. The exposed group had ≥1 claim for PDE-5i and the unexposed group had no claims for PDE-5i, and the groups were matched up to 1:4 on baseline risk variables.
Outcome

The primary outcome was MACE and the secondary outcomes were overall mortality and individual components of MACE, determined by multivariable Cox proportional hazard modeling.
Results

Matched plus multivariable analyses showed that MACE was lower by 13% in men exposed (n = 23 816) to PDE-5is (hazard ratio [HR] 0.87; 95% CI 0.79-0.95; P = .001) vs nonexposure (n = 48 682) over mean follow-up periods of 37 and 29 months, respectively, with lower incidence of coronary revascularization (HR 0.85; 95% CI 0.73-0.98; P = .029), heart failure (HR 0.83; 95% CI 0.72-0.97; P = .016), unstable angina (HR 0.78; 95% CI 0.64-0.96; P = .021), and CV death (HR 0.61; 95% CI 0.41-0.90; P = .014) with PDE-5i exposure. Phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor–exposed men had a 25% lower incidence of overall mortality (HR 0.75; 95% CI 0.65-0.87; P < .001). Men without coronary artery disease (CAD) but with CV risk factors at baseline showed a similar pattern. In the main study cohort, men in the highest quartile of PDE-5i exposure had the lowest incidence of MACE (HR 0.45; 95% CI 0.37-0.54; P < .001) and overall mortality (HR 0.51; 95% CI 0.37-0.71; P < .001) vs the lowest exposure quartile. In a subgroup with baseline type 2 diabetes (n = 6503), PDE-5i exposure was associated with a lower MACE risk (HR 0.79; 95% CI 0.64-0.97; P = .022).

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CRISPR gene editing can treat heart disease and repair damaged tissue after a heart attack
Corrie Pelc | Medical News Today | February 3, 2023
https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2023 ... rt-attack/

Each year, cardiovascular disease (CVD) — also known as heart disease — accounts for about 32% of all deaths around the world.

The most common type of heart disease is coronary artery disease, where blood is not able to flow properly to the heart. If blood flow is completely blocked to the heart, this can cause a heart attack.

Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center believe a new CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing therapy can both help treat heart disease and repair damaged tissue immediately after a heart attack via a mouse model.

The study was recently published in the journal Science.

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Major international study finds thrombectomy highly effective treatment for large strokes
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02- ... ctive.html
by University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

A large international clinical study finds that patients with large strokes had a dramatically better recovery after endovascular thrombectomy plus medical management than patients receiving only standard medical management.

Endovascular thrombectomy is mechanical recovery of a clot blocking blood flow in an artery.

The study was published Feb. 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with its presentation at the International Stroke Conference in Dallas.

The SELECT2 study, which involved 31 medical centers in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, was stopped early because of the successful results seen in patients who received thrombectomy versus medication only.

Global Principal Investigator and Lead Author of the study, Amrou Sarraj, MD, said, "We went on to challenge the current practice where patients with large strokes would be precluded from thrombectomy." Dr. Sarraj is the Stroke Center and System Director, the George M. Humphrey II Chair in Neurology at University Hospitals, and Professor of Neurology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

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Stroke survivor moves her hand for first time in a decade after groundbreaking treatment
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/0 ... dbreaking/
Heather Rendulic cries tears of joy as pioneering electrical stimulation gives her enough mobility to complete everyday tasks
By Joe Pinkstone, Science Correspondent 20 February 2023 • 4:34pm

A stroke survivor has been able to use cutlery to cut food and feed herself for the first time in a decade, thanks to insertions of electricity into her spine.

Heather Rendulic, who had a stroke in 2012 when she was 22, was left with no mobility in her left hand as a result of chronic post-stroke muscle weakness.

Scientists recruited Ms Rendulic, now 33, and one other stroke survivor, a 47-year-old woman, to be the first people to try out electrical stimulation of the spinal cord with the aim of improving arm and hand motor movements.

The system has been used previously to improve lower leg functionality in people with nerve damage. However, very little research has been done on using it to help people suffering with upper limb impediments.