People in need of a heart transplant can now breathe relieved, as they would not have to wait for a donor anymore thanks to a fully artificial heart, which is based on the technology of satellites and airplanes.

Dr. Alain Carpentier, a renowned French heart surgeon who has been working on this project for the past 15 years, presented the artificial heart in Paris during a press conference Monday.

Heart disease claims 17 million lives around the world every year, thus becoming the number 1 killer. According to the American Heart Association, about 2,200 heart transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2006. Unfortunately, the number of recipients exceeds greatly the number of donors. In countries like France or the US, there are few donors for a particularly large amount of people in need of a transplant. To help people while they wait for a transplant, new medications are available to improve the overall state of the patient, particularly regarding people suffering from cardio-myopathy.

Especially for this people, the new artificial heart might be life saving. It is covered with specially treated tissue to avoid rejection by the body’s immune system and the formation of blood clots.

The heart functioning relies pretty much on the technology of satellites and airplanes, said Patrick Coulombier, chief operating officer of Carmat, the manufacturer. Tiny sensors measuring air pressure and altitude in an airplane or satellite are also present in the artificial heart, detecting things like the heart’s pumping speed and the pressure on its walls. Consequently, the device will pomp more or less blood depending on the patient’s need.

The heart will be tested on patients whose lives are under threat and who have no other options for treatment before the trials are extended to others with a better outlook. Previous artificial hearts have been unable to automatically vary their pumping speed and must be tweaked externally.

The heart is expected to cost about $192,140. The most advanced U.S. artificial heart, made by the U.S. company Abiomed, sells for up to $250,000.