Device created in Porto improves treatment in case of heart failure

The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP) develops a device similar to a pacemaker that will improve the treatment of patients with heart failure, a condition that affects approximately 250,000 Portuguese [19659002]developed by the Cardiovascular Research Unit (UnIC), an integrated research center at FMUP, with the support of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), has just received a funding of 400 thousand euros from the Fundação Bancária "la Caixa" and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)

Coordinated by Adelino Leite Moreira, professor of FMUP and leader of the Unic, the project, Highlighted among 784 others, is already in the prototype state and will "at an advanced stage, greatly improve the clinical approach to the pathology," informed the FMUP.

According to the institution of higher education, "in contrast to conventional approaches that will not have the expected effect in about a third of patients," the device will allow health professionals , through software, to adapt the clinical approach to each patient and, if necessary, stimulate the heart at different points

This pioneering project, with researchers Rui Cerqueira, André Lourenço and Flávio Amorim, also aims to develop and apply minimally invasive techniques, also creating the conditions necessary to improve the advanced training of health professionals

For Adelino Leite Moreira, achieving this distinction "is a great victory for the # 39, team and only increase the willingness to continue working to develop the project to enter a new phase. "

The official pointed out that the creation of this project was only possible "thanks to a multidisciplinary team of the most diverse fields of knowledge", this recognition being "a collective victory of the UnIC, created in 1994, promotes scientific knowledge and its potential application in clinical practice, focused on the development of new approaches to the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of cardiovascular diseases – the leading cause of death in Portugal

It currently includes 122 researchers, 50 of whom are PhD students, being the only national center devoted exclusively to # 39; study of this subject, also indicated the FMUP