UC Davis researchers move biotechnology closer to replacing electronic pacemakers
UC Davis researchers have successfully used a custom designed protein and gene delivery system to restore normal heart rhythms in pigs with electronic pacemakers, reducing their dependence on implanted devices. This work suggests that scientists are one step closer to making bioengineering a reality in treating the more than 2.2 million Americans affected by irregular heartbeats. The UC...How brain pacemakers erase diseased messages
Despite the clinical success of the devices, which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and can be found in the heads of about 30,000 Americans, the mechanisms by which deep brain...Epilepsy Patients Could Benefit From Pacemakers
People with epilepsy might benefit from the implantation of cardiac pacemakers, finds a new study. Researchers arrived at the conclusion // after studying 20 patients with the disease. The results showed a significant occurrence of interrupted heart rhythm during seizures among the group. Interrupted heart rhythms during seizures might be responsible for the higher rate of unexplained dea...Withdrawal Notice Issued For Older Pacemakers Due To Malfunctioning of the Device
Health professionals have been recently notified that some older pacemakers manufactured by Guidant Corporation may malfunction due to a build-up of moisture //in the device. The products include early generation designs that have not been sold or implanted in the past 4 years, some of the names of the affected models include the Pulsar Max, Pulsar, Discovery, Meridian, Pulsar Max II, Dis...Stem Cells Could Replace Electronic Pacemakers
Electronic pacemakers, cannot react to situations like the heart's own can, such as raising the heart rate when a person is scared or about to climb up a hill but researchers say a pacemaker created by // stem cells may bypass this problem. Animal studies have shown that genetically engineered heart cells from human embryonic stem cells could lead to a biological form of pacemaker, acco...Reliability of Pacemakers and Defibrillators to be Improved
Inspite of the reliability of implanted cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators having improved studies have shown that these devices still tended to malfunction// at times. For the thousands of Americans who depend on the pacemaker or the defibrillator reliability of these devices is an important issue. The pacemaker’s job is to keep the heart beating regularly whereas the defibrillato...