About 2,000 people have ticking time bombs inside of their hearts.

Students at the MSU College of Engineering are looking for a way to defuse them.

Graduate students Naveen Nair and Michael Chan are working with five other students to develop detection methods for faulty heart valves implanted in thousands of patients from the 1960s until the mid-1980s.

The prosthetic valves, which audibly click open and shut, regulate blood flow from the upper to lower chambers on the left side of the heart - simulating a natural heart valve.

But some of the valves can fracture over time, leading to a break that blocks blood flow and could kill a patient.

"We are talking about something that is sitting in your heart, and you don't want that failing tomorrow morning," Nair said. "Heart valve replacement surgery has a high mortality rate and going for replacement surgery for 2,000 people can be extremely dangerous.

"We want to be absolutely sure it needs to be replaced before surgery, so that is why detection is important."

The team has come up with three methods for detecting fractured valves. One method compares the vibrations of a good valve to those of a fractured valve. The second method compares the sound a good valve emits when it closes to the sound a broken valve emits.

The final method is based on an electrical current induced on the valve, which Chan said is an "extremely small amount, harmless to the body."

A probe inserted all the way to the heart through a catheter measures the electromagnetic field the current creates. In a good valve, the field is strong while a broken valve has a weak field.

In a test simulating the conditions inside a heart, the third method was proven 100 percent accurate in determining a faulty valve. It has been moved to the animal testing stage of research.

"It's really rewarding and exciting to see the project progressing," Chan said. "To go to animal testing means the technique is solid and the work we've done is very good. The prospect is exciting, because after animal testing is successfully completed - which we expect it to be - it will move on to clinical tests with human subjects."

Nair, who has worked the project since June 2003, said progress is what keeps him motivated.

"People have been working for 15 years on this project, and we feel like we are at the full front of the technology in terms of detection," Nair said. "What MSU is doing is probably the best detection method. We think we are very close to a final method that could be used in a hospital."

At MSU, work began on detection methods about four years ago. Chan was invited to coordinate the project, which eventually became his dissertation.

"The reward is tremendous," Chan said. "When the project goes to completion, it will be used to potentially save lives."

The project was organized by Satish Udpa, the chairman for electrical and computer engineering.

Udpa said he credits the students' success to their cooperation.

"It takes a collective talent - no one person can get the job done," Udpa said. "The work gets done by the students. The professors stay on the sidelines while the students put heart and soul, blood and sweat into it."