X-Message-Number: 15459
From: 
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 13:55:54 EST

Subject: new topic: treating enlarged hearts?Also comments on vitrification 
discussions

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This may be a bit off topic, but I have a friend who has recently been 
diagnosed with an enlarged heart, left ventricle, with dilated blood vessels 
in that ventricle.  He's told its a bad prognosis, that he may need a heart 
transplant to survive- of course the best of those only last ten years. My 
friend is 57.  I'm urging him to consider Cryonics Institute, for price 
reasons I think that is his best option. 

If anyone has any info about treatments for this sort of condition, please 
let me know, esp if you can point me to a source or medical facility.  I've 
heard of some doctor in South America who sections or staples the heart, 
increasing pumping capacity.  I've also heard that there is a procedure for 
drilling holes into the muscle of the left ventricle to allow oxygen rich 
blood to perfuse the muscle.  I've also heard of stem cell research that may 
be beneficial for repairing this sort of damage. (Obviously that is a few 
years off)  I'm not a med professional, so I'm not up on the exact sites to 
search.  Any pointers would be much appreciated.  I'm 

p.s., I'm learning a lot via the Ettinger driven vitrification discussions.  
I'm glad to see a (generally) healthy discourse on the procedures, and I'm 
especially interested in independent labs verifying the test materials and 
results.  Even if there have been few standards in the past, or they have 
varied, would it not be a great idea to have at the next major cryonics 
gathering a development of protocols/testing defined to enable everyone to 
measure benchmarks in improvement?  ie, how toxic is some chemical, what 
concentrations are needed, how successful is the vitrification, how fast do 
patients need to be cooled, how easy is the application in real world 
conditions?  And, what are the test procedures a lab uses to verify these 
results? Also, any particular procedure could be verified for practicality- 
does it help, does it work, is it likely to make a difference?   It could be 
called the Ettinger Scale of Cryonic Preservation.  Okay, I'm a bit tongue in 
cheek, but doesn't it make sense to have a Cryonics Standards Institute, 
seminar or such meeting?  What is that organization-  The American National 
Standards Institute?   How do they run or determine procedures?  That might 
provide a benchmark for a similar effort in the cryonics movement... and, 
could lead to QUICKER advancements in the application of new technology and 
development of a true " suspended animation" technique.  Okay, we're up in 
the blue sky territory now, but its so odd to me that although cryonics is 
striving towards a goal, that goal is not clearly defined with benchmarks 
along the way to the goal.

Okay, I'm done.  Thanks for listening!

  





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