THE TIMES OF INDIA, CHENNAI *THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2016 5TIMES CITY

Chennai: Counselling forTamil Nadu Engineering Ad-missions (TNEA 2016) -- con-ducted by Anna University --will begin in Chennai on Ju-ne 24, starting with candida-tes under the sports quota.Differently-abled studentswill sit for counselling on Ju-ne 25 while general categorycounselling will begin on Ju-ne 27.

While the counsellingusually begins in the first we-ek of July, Anna Universityregistrar S Ganesan said thatthey decided to start it earlythis time to aid students.

He said that the universi-ty received 1,85,070 applica-tions online, of which1,34,722 candidates have paidtheir fee as of May 31. Therank list will be published onJune 22, upon which candida-tes can download the call let-ter from the university web-site.

In a first, the university isarranging accommodationfor girls coming to Chennaifor counselling. Studentswishing to avail accommoda-tion can use the TNEA helpli-nes -- 044-22358265/66/67, orsend a mail to tancetenq@an-nauniv.edu.

Last year, close to 1.9 lakhcandidates registered online,1.54 lakh paid their fees, with1.1 lakh taking up the final of-fer. The registrar denied a dipin candidates opting for engi-neering despite the stats.

“Every year, there are alot of candidates who don’ttake up the offer due to vario-us reasons. That way, the ra-tio of those who apply to tho-se who take up admission isnot skewed. Engineering co-urses are very much in de-mand and jobs are aplenty,”he said.

For details, visit www.an-nauniv.edu/tnea2016.

Anna Univcounsellingfrom June 24

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Chennai: Southern railway willrun a superfast special trainfrom Trichy to Santragachi inWest Bengal via ChennaiEgmore. The train (No 00609)will leave Trichy at 5.30pm onJune 18 and June 25, bothSaturdays, and reachSantragachi on the followingMondays. TNN

Spl superfast train to West Bengal

Chennai: From ventilators tocontraptions fitted with wi-res, complex devices have be-en employed to imitate thelungs in patients struggling tobreathe. A group of resear-chers is now looking at a bubb-le to save lives.

Ben Terry, assistant pro-fessor of mechanical and ma-terials engineering at Univer-sity of Nebraska-Lincoln whowas the city, on Wednesday ex-plained his research on provi-ding oxygen to people whoselungs don’t function. “Themethod involves inserting abubble of many micro oxy-gen-filled bubbles into the bo-dy,” he said.

Lungs help oxygen fromthe air we breathe enter theblood’s red cells which thencarry oxygen around the body.Lungs also help the body get

rid of CO2 when we breatheout. Bacterial infection or in-jury can trigger acute respira-tory distress, causing a per-son’s lungs to shut down. Doc-tors now use mechanical ven-tilators or pump blood outsidethe body to oxygentate it.“Ventilators only aid in breat-hing while the lungs continueto function. Pumping bloodoutside requires anti-coagu-lants that can cause side-ef-fects like haemorrhage andblood contamination,” saidProf Terry.

He and another resear-cher from University of Colo-rado-Boulder have been try-ing to find an alternative by in-troducing bubbles into a bodycavity that would be transpor-ted by the patient’s circulato-

ry system to the brain andother vital organs. “We havetested them on rabbits, withpositive results. Even if thetrachea is clamped, the bubbletakes up the role of the lungsfor around 45 minutes. The ca-vity is transformed into athird lung,” said Prof Terry,who specializes in minimallyinvasive surgical tools. Bubb-les, smaller than 1mm, haveproperties of air sacs. Doctorssay the research, if successful,will allow time for lung injuri-es to heal. “There is a great ne-ed for an alternative to keeplungs functional. Right now,when a person with end-stagelung disease is put on ventila-tor, it is like a death warrantfor him,” said transplant sur-geon Dr N Madhu Sankar.

Third LungInserted IntoBody Cavity

Now, a micro bubbleto function as lung

Even if the trachea isclamped, the bubbletakes up the role ofthe lungs for around45 minutes. The cavi-ty is transformedinto a third lungBen Terry|UNIV OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN

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Chennai: For more than 12years, doctors from theFrontier Lifeline Hospitalhave been visiting abattoirswith their surgical glovesand scalpels to harvest val-ves, blood vessels and tissuefrom buffaloes and pigs, pro-cess them in labs, and usethem on ailing human he-arts.

Now, after a clinical trialon 600 patients, includinginfants, the hospital says itwill take these animal graftsto the operation theatre ifthe last leg of the research issuccessful. “Less than 5% ofpatients who got these ani-mal grafts have returnedwith complications,” saidsenior cardiac surgeon DrKM Cherian, who heads theFrontier Lifeline Hospital.

On May 13, a team from

the hospital presented theirfindings before a panel ofdoctors at the Indian Coun-cil of Medical Research.“Decks have been cleared totake this to the phase III tri-al. We are waiting for the for-mal letter to start the study,”he said. For the study, theprocessed animal grafts willbe used in 50 patients at theAll India Institute of Medi-cal Sciences, New Delhi,Post Graduate Institute ofMedical Education and Re-search, Chandigarh and

Frontier Lifeline, Chennai. The hospital started the

process of making graftsfrom animals after it foundit difficult to replace certainparts of the human heart,including the pericardiumand the pulmonary artery.“It is difficult to get graftsfrom brain-dead patients.When we used syntheticgrafts, patients came backwith problems,” he noted.

Dr Cherian said that ifthe study succeeded, pati-ents would get valves at halfthe cost of imported valves.“The valves manufacturedin India presently are lessexpensive but have their li-mitations. For instance, pa-tients will have to be on blo-od thinner medicines,which can increase risks ofbleeding. Our valves, likeimported ones, don’t needblood thinners,” he added.

Animal valves to heal heartsTIMES NEWS NETWORK

The hospital startedthe process of makinggrafts from animalsafter it found itdifficult to replacecertain parts of thehuman heart

Doctors, Scientists Merge Tech And Medicine