Stunning Innovations in cardiology : Learning from “ Swiss watch ” . . . and pacemakers will soon go battery less!

Artificial pacemaker is one of the major discoveries in cardiology that has given new lease of life to patients suffering from serious bradycardia and heart blocks . Now, the technology has grown beyond pacing , for delivering shock ,defibrillate , resynchronise failing heart etc. For accomplishing  all these tasks we need electrical power . . . non stop on board ! Though , the energy required for sustaining an electric pacemaker is miniscule (About 40 micro watts) still, the lithium ion battery can last only around  10 years with the available technology.Various alternate sources for power* are being  explored. One great innovation is on the horizon .A new “scientific spark”  came from a totally unexpected  quarter.  If Automatic Swiss watch can run without a battery  life long ?  Why not a cardiac  pacemaker  ?  How about harvesting mechanical energy from the heart itself  ? (The ultimate biological bundle of energy ! ) . The concept was  originally suggested by University of Berne Switzerland , researchers from Stanford has successfully used the cardiac  muscle activity as a dynamo to generate and store minute amount of electricity that can sustain heartbeats in an electro  mechanical coil loop model. A person’s heartbeat  moves a magnet and generate electricity for a pacemaker Trials done on pig’s heart are promising .(Reference 1) Final message  The idea may look dramatic , but it works.Hope  it becomes reality in our patients in ne...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Cardiology -Pacemakers and ICD Cardiology -Technology future of cardiology Futuristic cardiology innovations in cardiology newer advances in pacemaker energetics pacmekr life battery lithium ion self powered pacemakers Source Type: blogs