“Tension lene ka nahin, sirf dene ka”;Khamosh

Manoj Akash, a young student dreams to touch “Akash”; Develops device to predict Silent Heart attacks

For once, he was an avid reader of medical literature for a leisure reading, but he was shocked to see passing away of his grandfather suddenly without betraying any sign of the tragedy. The tragedy at home for Manoj Akash was a turning point. It threw him into deep thought process how such silent heart attacks can be predicted in advance?

His grandfather was suffering from diabetic and high blood pressure, but his ischemia wrought havoc in the family.  Manoj Akash, a student of Ashok Leyland School, Hosur, and Tamil Nadu could not digest the 2015 tragedy and riveted attention to explore ways and means to work out the solution.

The skin patch invented by Akash has to be attached to the wrist or the back of the ear and it will release a small ‘positive’ electrical impulse, which will attract the negatively charged protein released by the heart to signal a heart attack. If the quantity of this protein – FABP3 -- is high, the person must seek immediate medical attention.

A confident Akash who created a sensation with his discovery. Since he was in class eight, he started visiting the library of The Indian Institute of science in Bengaluru – an hour away from his hometown. He could not afford expensive books and journals so the library visit was the only option left for this enterprising adolescent who had an extra knack to comprehend complexities of cardiology just because of his penchant for the heart diseases studies.

He was chosen for the President’s Innovation Scholar’s In-Residence Programme at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

 He already filed for his patent rights and he wants the Indian government to use the project but not the private organizations.

 In a narrative to raise funds for the project on his website, He says that he investigated a novel concept that could potentially allow patients to detect silent heart attacks by non-invasively sensing the FABP3 biomarker in the bloodstream. ABP3 is a lightweight protein released quickly from heart muscle into the bloodstream during a heart attack, and therefore, it is an optimal cardiac diagnostic marker. 

According to him, Doctors may test a patient's blood for FABP3 if he or she experiences characteristic symptoms like chest pain. However, not all heart attacks make themselves known through easily noticeable signs. Silent heart attacks, which are becoming increasingly common, are asymptomatic, making them more dangerous than conventional heart attacks. 

Patients often "drop dead" while feeling completely normal. This collapse happened to my grandfather on July 3rd, 2015 which served as an impetus for me to find a solution to this problem. In these "silent" cases, doctors are unlikely to administer the crucial FABP3 blood test because there is no visible presentation of symptoms to warrant a diagnostic test. As a result, silent heart attacks go unnoticed.

“I realized that, if at-risk patients could test themselves daily for the presence of FABP3 in their blood, they would have higher chances of detecting silent heart attacks as they occur. A method that allows daily self-testing would have to be non-invasive, safe, and easy to use. Ultimately, it would have to involve a transcutaneous blood analysis, which examines the contents of one's blood without penetrating the skin. 

In searching for ways to tackle this challenging prospect, I examined the various distinguishing characteristics of blood proteins that would allow them to be identified transcutaneously. I found that proteins have distinctive masses and electric charges in blood. 

So, I used a model to test whether different magnitudes of charged electricity, when applied to a thin area of skin, would isolate FABP3 from the other blood proteins and attract FABP3 to the capillary walls. My results showed that this is true. 

This means that the technique that I investigated can potentially be coupled with transcutaneous UV-protein quantification to non-invasively measure the amount of FABP3 in a patient's blood and alert him or her of a silent heart attack.”

“I'm a Class 10 student from India. I need these funds now to develop my project in India and prototype it into cost-efficient devices. I had previously worked with the Tokyo University of Science to get my project endorsed!

 Akash was invited to Tokyo University of Science, Japan for presenting his project at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

  He was frequenting scientific conventions to further his knowledge in the science field. Internet gave him a lot of insight, he admits Clinical trials for the medical device are on and it could be approved for a human trial. The product would be fit to be launched in the market after two months of human trial, assuming nothing goes wrong.“I have already filed for a patent and I would tie up with the department of biotechnology for the trial. I would want the government of India to take the project instead of selling it to a private company because it is for the public good,” he says on his website.A small silicon patch stuck to your wrist or back of your ear can be used regularly to monitor whether there has been a heart attack instead of waiting for a doctor to prescribe a test.

The patch uses a positively charged electrical impulse to draw negatively charged ---protein to the surface; If the amount of FABP3 is high, then the person would need immediate medical attention; People who are at risk are recommended to use the device twice a day -- in the morning and at night, before going to bed; The product can soon be seen in the market and would cost around R 900, cheaper than a glucometer symptoms at all.

Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels all put you at risk of a silent heart attack, experts say. Having a silent heart attack puts people at a greater risk of having another heart attack, which could be fatal. Having another heart attack also increases the risk of complications, such as heart failure.

Experts say a silent heart attack a heart attack is characterized by chest pain, pain in the left arm or shortness is when of breath. A person who has a silent heart attack may not show these the symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath that are indicative of heart attack is not felt. he proudly shows his visiting card which maintains him as a researcher of cardiology and but the grand father’s death prompted him to develop device that can easily predict silent heart attacks which is taking heavy toll of lives in India which where people generally ignore warning signals Akash aims to study cardiology at the country’s premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.