Pacemaker

Working their way towards energy-efficient pacemakers that use light pulses to control the beating of the heart, scientists at New York's Stony Brook University recently developed optogenetic heart tissue – it contracts when exposed to light. More specifically, they took donor cells that had been modified to respond to light, and coupled them to conventional heart cells. A team from California’s Stanford University, however, has now created actual optogenetic heart cells. Read More

There's no denying that pacemakers are life-saving devices, but they do have their limitations. These include the facts that their metal leads can break, they need to be surgically accessed if their batteries run out, and they can be disrupted by strong magnetic fields. Some or all of these problems may one day become things of the past, however, due to research currently being conducted at New York's Stony Brook University - scientists there are working towards the development of pacemakers that control the heart through pulses of light. Read More

Despite ongoing advances in prevention techniques and monitoring systems, heart disease remains the world’s leading cause of death. A study from the University of Michigan (U-M) Cardiovascular Center has looked to the past for a future remedy in a study that examines the legality and basic logistics of recycling pacemakers after they have been removed from a deceased person. Read More

Researchers at the University of Louisville/Jewish Hospital's Cardiovascular Innovation Institute (CII) have discovered a method for preventing scar tissue from forming around implantation devices. This discovery could have a great impact on the functionality of common implanted devices, such as pacemakers, chemotherapy ports and glucose sensors. According to the study, if a unique system of blood vessels is created to interact with local tissue around an implanted device, better long term results can be achieved. The process involves “pre-vascularizing” a device prior to implantation, using what the team call a microvascular construct (MVC), which consists of blood vessels contained within a collagen gel. The idea is that a device will be coated in this gel prior to implantation. Since the body’s natural process is to find a foreign object and form a scar around it, this new study could prevent this problem from occurring. Read More

The world’s very first fully implanted pacemaker, in 1958, lasted three hours before the batteries failed. It was replaced by one that lasted two days. Ultimately, Arne Larsson – surgical guinea pig – went on to receive 26 different pacemakers over the next 43 years. Now, a New York woman has become the first person in the world to receive a pacemaker that allows completely wireless monitoring, transmitting clinical data to her doctor each day via the Internet. And, if anything ever goes wrong, the doctor is alerted instantly. Read More