Penn State's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center will be among the first places in the U.S. to test a breakthrough machine that helps people with heart disease live longer.

The device, called the Arrow LionHeart, is the product of years of research by Penn State scientists. It is being developed in cooperation with biotechnology company Arrow International, Inc. of Reading.

The Food and Drug Administration just approved the LionHeart for testing in humans in the U.S., Arrow International announced last week.

If successful, the device could help tens of thousands of patients who die every year from congestive heart failure because they are unable to receive a full heart transplant.

The LionHeart does not replace the heart, but sits below it, acting as a helper pump for the left ventricle.

Unlike other heart assist devices, the LionHeart requires no cables or hoses passing through the skin.

The machine uses an external battery pack that sends power to the pump inside the chest through a metal coil placed against the skin. If the battery pack becomes detached, the heart pump can run off an internal battery for more than 20 minutes.

A tiny computer built into the LionHeart regulates how fast the heart needs to beat to maintain blood flow, whether a patient is resting or exercising.

In Europe, doctors have already implanted Penn State's heart assist pump in 10 patients. Several of the patients have died, but none because of problems with the LionHeart.

Through an internal radio transmitter, doctors can read data about how the assist pump is functioning and see it graphed on a computer screen. Through computer connections, researchers in Pennsylvania have been able to follow the progress of patients in Europe.

No date has been set for the first implant of the LionHeart, but it could come as early as this month, according to an Arrow International press release.

Penn State's Artificial Organs program has been researching artificial heart devices since 1970.

Researchers at Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory have helped develop special parts and materials for use in the warm, corrosive environment that is the human bloodstream.

Penn State researchers are also trying to build a full artificial heart that will be completely implanted in a human. At Hershey, doctors are already testing the total artificial heart in calves.

Penn State's total heart project is part of a partnership with another biotechnology company, ABIOMED Inc., of Danvers, Mass.

Earlier this year, ABIOMED announced it had received permission from the FDA to test a different totally implantable heart, the AbioCor Replacement Heart.

Several temporary heart assist devices are already on the market, although Arrow says the LionHeart will be the first without lines passing through the skin.