But this time this medical adventure will be 100 French

This is no longer science fiction. End of 2011, the first artificial heart that mimics the anatomy and the physiological functioning of the human body will be implanted in the chest of a voluntary patient of congestive heart failure at the terminal stage. Swollen by the prospect of achieve the dream that caress the Americans for half a century, the French firm Carmat, "spin off" based EADS in 2008, which is also funded by the Foundation Alain Carpentier, Truffle Capital and OSEO, is palpiter the Paris stock exchange since yesterday.

This first medical world, that the France to the eminent cardiologist Alain Carpentier, raises great hopes for the approximately 100,000 patients in the world who hope for a heart transplant after a massive myocardial infarction. Currently, only 4,000 to benefit each year due to lack of plugins. Protected by a battery of patents, the artificial heart of Carmat is the first technological alternative in definitive treatment. "This is not a simple pump, such as what exists, but truly functional copy of the human heart", certifies Professor Alain Carpentier, Director of the laboratory for the study of Hospital Cardiac prostheses and grafts European Georges-Pompidou, who is also President of the Scientific Council of Carmat. Thus far, the only available solution is the Cardiowest, marketed by the American company Syncardia, pneumatic actuator system which only operates on a temporary basis pending a transplant.

After fifteen years of development hard in secret within EADS, the announcement of this French prowess, unveiled on October 27, 2008, by "Les echos" had the effect of a bomb in the global scientific community. "Nothing was never filtered." "But no expert in cardiology has doubted the value of this project because the international reputation of Professor Carpentier", remembers Marcello Conviti, who joined the team of Carmat in September last as Director General. This manager experienced, which has twenty-five years of experience in cardiovascular medical devices, is even better placed to judge that he still held in the fall of 2008 the position of senior Vice President of Edwards Lifesciences. It is towards this American company that was turned Alain Carpentier in the 1970s to develop its valve bioprothesis, or find a partner ready to follow in France. "I agreed to take the direction of Carmat, because I consider that its engineering ideas revolutionized heart surgery." 1 Million patients worldwide have been able to live normally with the Carpentier-Edwards valve. "I wanted to participate in his new challenge," says Marcello Conviti.

But this time, this medical adventure will be 100 French. Through the foresight of Alain Carpentier, who will go see, early 1990s, President of Matra, Jean-Luc Lagardère, to expose his fabulous project (see below). Exercised in this industrial eye will soon think artist possible technological synergies with Aeronautics and defence, which will prove crucial to meet this challenge. In 1993, their alliance will be sealed by the creation of the GIE Carmat (Carpentier-Matra). After the first successful implantation on the animal in 2001, Jean-Luc Lagardère decided to dedicate a team with specialists in electronics, biomaterials, mechanics, embedded systems and simulation numérique which still constitute the hard core of Carmat full-time. Starting with Patrick Coulombier, Deputy Director-General of the company, who shepherded the Matra development since the original: "We have applied for the first time in development methodologies based on simulations, numerical simulations and testbeds that have been proven in aeronautics, systems embedded in extremely harsh environments," he says.

This experimental, innovative approach in cardiology, is at the heart of the design of the most advanced cardiac bioprothèse in the world. His endurance is now proven on a period of five years, the equivalent of 230 million beats, with a goal in nine years, as a heart transplant. "In the case of the artificial heart, animal testing was used to validate methods of numerical simulation more to try to prove the reliability of a complex bioprothèse", says Professor Carpentier. Optimization of the final heart weighs 900 grams for a volume of 0.75 litre, required four prototypes carried out using the most efficient means of medical imaging, with virtual pré-implantations from the scanner to 100 chest.

The artificial heart of Carmat has every chance to work on human, as the main obstacle that would have encountered all American attempts is lifted: "To avoid the problem of the hemocompatibility, i.e. the formation of blood clots, we have not taken the risk of developing of new biomaterials." We used those proven long in Professor Carpentier heart valves that do not require the taking of anticoagulants", said Patrick Coulombier. With its miniaturized embedded electronic system, the artificial heart has the same capacity as the human body to adapt automatically to the physiological changes of the body. With a virtual prétransplantation 3D model, which will be completed for each intervention from the chest of the patient, any physical problems can be anticipated before the implementation of the artificial heart. Its operating cost is comparable to a conventional transplant, of the order of 250,000 euros.