The small and injectable pacemaker is clear and then dissolves
This temporary marker may have less than one grain of rice, can constantly regulate the heart
A Pacemaker uses electricity to regulate heartbeat.
Eugene Mymrin / Getty Images
Temporary Markager outfits It can be used as a stop to regulate heartbeat after surgery and emergency situations. But to be surgically installed and removed also leads to the risk: Neil Armstrong Neil Armstrong famous fatal bleeding, when the surgeon removed temporary markers. Now researchers have developed Tiny temporary pacemaker This can delete some of that risk. The device, few millimeters, does not require wireless and the location of the least invasive. Can be injected in the body with a needle. And when his work is finished, it dissolves.
Conventionally, temporary markers form electrodes that implant in heart muscle. These electrodes are connected with an external battery that gives a pulse to control the heart rate and control the heartbeat or direct irregular. The new Pacemaker, less invasive in a small heart, consisting of two electrodes, are designed to do two things. “He says Northwestern University John A. Rogers biomedical engineers, one of the authors of the Paper of April 2. Nature which describes the device. “They inject one in cardium tissues to stimulate contractions that cause the general cycle of Cardiac … (the other) they provide a source of energy to drive the operation of the packer.”
A temporary marker like this, smaller than a grain of rice, could be injected in the body to regulate heartbeat.
John A. Rogers / Northwestern University
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The mini marker device has no special battery. Instead, the body works as a simple type of battery that is called a galvanic cell. Composed of two electrodes, magnesium, zinc and molybdenum combinations.
The opposite of electrodes is a small activated light switch that controls the operation of the battery. In the “activated” position, an electric pulse is given in hearts; Nothing happens in the state of “Off”. Pacemaker is associated with a smooth and flexible skin patch above the heart that controls the heart rate. The heart beat is irregular or slow, it turns on a light and turns off. Pacemaker responds wavelength wavelengths of wavelengths deeply internalized in biological fabrics.
When the work of Pacemaker is finished, it dissolves in the body. The device has a few days and three weeks of finite operation, Rogers says, according to the choice of electrodes.
The current study is progress the marker that is previously soluble by the same group. The previous iteration used technology called communication in almost field communication instead of a galvanic cell; He hit the antenna with the power, which made much bigger. Extreme miniaturization is one of the progress of the new model, as Rogers says. “From this, we can use multimeter-scale markers at the same time when they act at different locations in the heart (devices) at the same time in different wavelengths.”
Researchers are also analyzing the possibility of integrating devices with medical implants, such as replacement heart valves, do not currently have a heart control mechanism.
Thanh Nho, he made a biomedical engineer at the New Australian University of South Wales. Without external energy entries, it provides reliable and durable, he says, and can also reduce the risks of procedure and significantly reduce patient discomfort.
Virginia Tech Xiaoting Jia, who did not participate in the project, says it has a high potential for practical human use. “The group has made comprehensive tests in animal models and Experiments outside the Ex Vivo settings. The following important step would be to use the security of human demand (food and drug administration) for clinical uses.” The researchers are working to do this through a new initial business.
A key challenge, it is added to select the right materials to balance the functionality and safe degradation without turning immunity reactions like inflammation.
