A tiny balloon could help doctors identify heart surgery patients who are at risk of potentially fatal complications.

A tube-shaped balloon — about two centimeters long — is placed in the chest at the end of bypass surgery and other major heart procedures.

Surgeons insert a thin wire into the chest through the end of the inflated balloon, and once inside the pericardial sac (the fibrous sac that sits in the heart), the balloon is inflated.

The other end of the wire is connected to a monitor, which measures the changes in the balloon.

A tiny balloon can help doctors diagnose a potentially fatal complication in heart surgery patients (stock image).

A tube-shaped balloon – about two centimeters long – is placed in the chest at the end of surgery and other major heart procedures.

The idea is that monitoring this pressure for several days while the patient recovers in the hospital provides early warning of a potentially fatal condition called cardiac tamponade.

This occurs when the pericardial sac fills with blood or fluid from damaged blood vessels during heart surgery.

When the sac fills with fluid, it compresses the heart, stops it beating properly, and severely reduces blood flow to other vital organs.

The disease usually develops within 48 hours in a large heart process. It is considered a medical emergency, because if it is not seen quickly, it can cause a fatal heart attack.

Although rare, complications from heart surgery are responsible for 30 percent of deaths.

An experimental balloon device developed by cardiac surgeon Hazem Faluh of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, could be the solution.

In addition to the balloon, a second wire with a special sensor on its end – called a Doppler probe – is inserted into the same place.

This then bounces high-frequency sound waves off red blood cells in the heart to get a picture of how well blood is flowing through the arteries.

It also acts as a warning to doctors by signaling when the blood flow stops – indicating that there may be a problem.

Both devices – the balloon and the probe – are easily removed after the patient is clear, usually after 48 hours.

Patients monitored with this new device have to stay in the hospital, and they have to stay longer than usual.

However, this means that cardiac tamponade can be detected earlier, when it can be treated, which is a big step forward.

A sudden drop in blood pressure is one of the few warning signs of cardiac tamponade.

If doctors see it quickly, they can treat it by removing excess fluid.

However, the condition can easily be mistaken for other conditions such as heart failure – where the heart does not move properly.

If left untreated, cardiac tamponade often results in emergency heart surgery to relieve the pressure on the heart – a procedure with a mortality rate of up to 70 percent.

A pericardial device to monitor cardiac output and diagnose Tamponade (PerDeCT) is currently an example.

However, the organizers have recently been awarded a £500,000 grant by Innovate UK, a public body which funds new technologies to be tested at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital over the next year or so.

Professor Gerard Stansby, honorary consultant vascular surgeon at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This can be very useful as long as there are no adverse effects such as bleeding or infection.”

Florida Atlantic University scientists have developed a belt that monitors patients with heart failure – the heart cannot pump blood properly around the body.

The device worn around the chest measures the heart rate, the amount of fluid in the lungs and the electrical activity in the heart – which increases as heart failure worsens. The idea is that patients wear a ‘belt’ as they go about their daily lives – the results are sent wirelessly to their doctor indicating changes in their condition.

According to the journal Scientific Reports, researchers hope the belt, which is still being developed, could reduce hospital admissions for severe heart attacks.

Drinking coffee makes your bones stronger… if you are a woman

Drinking coffee strengthens the bones of young women. A new study based on 7,000 people between their 20s and 50s found that the more coffee women drank in their 30s, the higher their bone density.

But for men in their 40s, the opposite was true, according to the study in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.

Bone density naturally declines with age – it’s important to take steps to slow this decline because low bone density is linked to the progressive disease osteoporosis, which increases the risk of bone fractures.

Researchers at Nanjing University in China say that caffeine can have a beneficial effect on calcium production, but the reason why only women use it is not clear.

High-intensity ultrasound waves can treat acne scars. About 60 men and women are taking part in a clinical trial at the Center for Laser and Skin Surgery in New York and other centers – where sound waves are thought to reduce the effects of inflammation and help the skin heal.

Weight gain can reduce migraine attacks.

Lifting weights regularly can help reduce the number of migraine attacks.

Researchers at Stanford University in the US reviewed the results of 21 previous trials on the benefits of exercise and found that strength training (such as weight lifting, press-ups and squats) was most effective, followed by aerobic exercises (such as running and jumping), reported in the journal Headache and Pain.

It is not clear how exercise helps reduce migraine attacks, but one theory is that by strengthening the muscles of the neck, shoulders and upper limbs, this reduces the pain associated with migraines.

Watch the clock

HOops To harness the power of your body clock. This week: Brush your teeth first

As Dr Ben Atkins, dentist and trustee of the dental charity Oral Health Foundation, explains, brushing at this time weakens the enamel (‘He brushes his teeth as soon as I get out of bed’).

You may have learned to brush twice a day – after breakfast and before bed – but right after breakfast is not the best time to do so, as the acidity from food and drink can soften the enamel, the hard outer layer that protects against tooth decay.

As Dr Ben Atkins, dentist and trustee of the dental charity Oral Health Foundation, explains, brushing at this time can weaken the enamel (‘He brushes his teeth as soon as I get out of bed).

You can wait half an hour to give the acidic ingredients time to wash off naturally, but this may not be convenient.

So brush before breakfast – and if you want to get that clean mouth feeling after you eat, try chewing sugar-free gum, which stimulates saliva production, which washes away food debris and restores the pH in the mouth so it’s less acidic. .

The laboratory of life

A history of unusual medical findings. This week: Gut transit times and the microbiome

In the year According to a 2021 study published in the journal Gut Microbiota, people with longer gut transit times – that is, the time it takes for food to travel from one end to the other – had lower bacterial diversity and higher levels of ‘bad’ bacteria in their guts compared to the poor.

In the year A 2021 study published in the journal Gut Microbiota found that people with longer gut transit times – that is, the time it takes for food to travel from one end to the other – had lower bacterial diversity and higher levels of ‘bad’ bacteria in their guts compared to the fast-poor.

Experiment participants were asked to eat muffins made with blue food coloring—and to record how long it took before they produced a blue pot. The average transit time was 28 hours.

Dr Sarah Berry, Reader in Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London, says: ‘We are now trying to find out why transit time and bacterial species are linked.’ People who eat low-fiber, highly processed foods may be more likely to have a longer transit time, resulting in less food for good bacteria to feed on.’