Islamabad, 28 Jan (Online): The human heart beats 100,000 times a day pumping blood around the body. It beats a regular rhythm that changes in response to the body\u2019s activity.<\/p>\n
Each heartbeat starts with an electrical impulse \u2014 abnormal electrical signals result in an abnormal heartbeat, called arrhythmia. Up to an estimated 5%Trusted Source of the population of the world has arrhythmia.<\/p>\n
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) \u2014 where the heart beats quickly and irregularly \u2014 is the most common type of arrhythmia, affecting over 33.5 millionTrusted Source people worldwide and with an estimated 5 million new cases annually.<\/p>\n
Other types include supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), bradycardiaTrusted Source, and ventricular fibrillation.<\/p>\n
How do you fix arrhythmia?
\nArrhythmia can be treated by medication, but in more serious cases devices such as pacemakers are used to control the heart rate.<\/p>\n
Pacemakers are small devices implanted under the collarbone with wires connecting to the heart, the device recognizes when a heartbeat is missed or irregular and it sends an on-demand impulse to the heart to regulate it.<\/p>\n
According to a National Health Interview SurveyTrusted Source in the United States, almost three in every 1,000 people have a pacemaker fitted.<\/p>\n
New research from a collaboration between the University of Arizona and Northwestern University has led to the development of a wireless, battery-free pacemaker, able to predict cardiac events and provide more subtle stimuli to specific cells.
\nThe study appears in Science Advances.<\/p>\n
Personalized pacemakers
\nThe new mesh device is digitally manufactured, with four thin-film leaves that wrap around the heart. They \u201care ultra-thin and geometries are engineered to enable soft mechanics to reduce impact on the organ,\u201d study co-author Dr. Philip Gutruf assistant professor and
\nCraig M. Berge faculty fellow at the University of Arizona told Medical News Today.<\/p>\n
The unique design of the device provides multisite stimulation of the heart muscle cells, and its use of optogenetics provides targeted electrical stimulation to the heart muscle cells.<\/p>\n
Lighting the way to new treatment
\nOptogenetics is a technique based on the introduction of genes for light-sensitive proteins to specific cells, the modified cells express light-sensitive ion channels which allow them to be controlled by light.<\/p>\n
Study co-author Dr. Igor Efimov, chairman of George Washington\u2019s Department of Biomedical Engineering and director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Cardiovascular Engineering Laboratory explained:<\/p>\n
\u201cOptogenetics is a technique which is based on the interaction of light with a light-sensitive channel called opsin. By design, opsins are expressed using transgenic technology in specific cells, in myocytes \u2014 cardiac muscle cells.\u201d<\/p>\n
Targetting specific cells according to the scientists can be a more efficient offering a pain-free alternative to current electrical treatments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to note however that pacing does not activate pain receptors in the heart and patients with pacemakers typically do not feel any symptoms at all,\u201d explained Dr. Shephal Doshi, cardiac electrophysiologist and director of cardiac electrophysiology and pacing at Providence Saint John\u2019s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA.<\/p>\n
Speaking to MNT, Dr. Doshi said that \u201cthe biggest impact the study has is potentially allowing defibrillation or shocking of the heart for those patients who have weak hearts to be done in a less painful manner,\u201d explaining that \u201cwhen patients have defibrillation of the heart muscle they often do feel discomfort because the electrical current also affects other muscles in the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Battery-free stimulation
\nIn the current study, the researchers implanted the wireless, battery-free pacemaker device into mice for 3 weeks to assess its sensing, stimulation, and computation capabilities. <\/p>\n
Once implanted the device was able to monitor the mice\u2019s heart rate comparable to external ECG recordings.<\/p>\n
Dr. Doshi, who was not involved in the study, said that \u201c[t]his article and clinical work are very interesting in that the device can potentially be battery-free.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith regards to battery life, however, the current pacing and defibrillating devices typically last 10 years or longer, and the potential of having battery-free technology could be helpful to patients, but unlike this novel device described in the article current devices and leads are easy to implant and do not require a large wire mesh in the heart,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n
Speaking to MNT, Dr. Gutruf described how the device can be shaped to fit the heart limiting any damage. The group used \u201cneural net enabled feature tracking to not only take the shape of the heart into account but also the mechanics beat to beat. The way this works is by taking a video \u2014 ex vivo heartTrusted Source, CT, MRI etc. \u2014 of the beating heart and tracking the outline digitally.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis provides information on the topology which we use to engineer the mechanics of the device to fit the heart dynamically,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
What are the next steps?
\nIn an interview with MNT, Dr. Efimov commented on whether the breakthrough has the potential for human treatment:<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, that\u2019s the idea \u2014 to translate this novel technology to humans. But first, we will need to develop a new step-device for a model of arrhythmia in large animals, swine or sheep, which have much closer resemblance with the human cardiovascular physiology than rodents.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to say that \u201cprevious tests showed good evidence of safety and lack of damage during chronic implants in rodents,\u201d saying that the next step for this work is to \u201cdevelop a scaled-up device for a large animal model and demonstrate its safety, efficacy, and longevity.\u201d<\/p>\n
For this technology to be taken forward, the researchers \u201c[need to get funded to develop the next step in this technology \u2014 a human-sized device to test it in a large animal model of cardiac arrhythmia and heart failure,\u201d commented Dr. Efimov.<\/p>\n
Dr. Gutruf agreed that \u201cfunding through national agencies such as the NIH is critical to drive technology availability.\u201d
\n\u2022\tHeart Disease
\n\u2022\tMedical Innovation
\n\u2022\tMedical Devices \/ Diagnostics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad, 28 Jan (Online): The human heart beats 100,000 times a day pumping blood around the body. It beats a regular rhythm that changes in response to the body\u2019s activity. Each heartbeat starts with an electrical impulse \u2014 abnormal electrical signals result in an abnormal […]<\/p>\n
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