Latest Pacemaker Stories

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Cardiologists from The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles have announced the development of a biologically-based pacemaker by reprogramming ordinary heart cells using the introduction of a single gene - Tbx18. "Although we and others have created primitive biological pacemakers before, this study is the first to show that a single gene can direct the conversion of heart muscle cells to genuine pacemaker cells. The new cells...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The artificial pacemaker, a device that helps regulate the human heart through electrical impulses, has been widely used in cardiac patients for decades. However, these patients must undergo regular procedures to replace batteries when they wear out, raising the risk for infections and other complications. But now, researchers believe they have a new form of energy that can power pacemakers well beyond the life of conventional...

NATICK, Mass., April 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) announces CE Mark approval and European market launch of its INGENIO(TM) and ADVANTIO(TM) pacemakers and INVIVE(TM) cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers (CRT-P). One of the first implants of the INGENIO pacemaker occurred last week by Marc Burban, M.D., at the Nouvelles Cliniques Nantaises in Nantes, France. "The INGENIO family of pacemakers represents a significant investment in...

Though pacemakers require only small amounts of energy (about 1 millionth of a Watt), their batteries have to be replaced periodically, which means multiple surgeries for patients. Researchers have searched for ways to prolong battery life – trying to generate energy to power a pacemaker using blood sugar, or the motion of the hands and legs – but these methods either interfere with metabolism or require a more drastic surgery, such as passing a wire from the limbs to the chest area....

A high percentage of Michigan funeral directors would allow a late person's pacemaker to be reused by struggling individuals overseas, cardiologists say. A team of cardiologists said they found in a study that 89 percent of Michigan funeral directors and 87 percent of people with pacemakers would have no problem donating the medical devices rather than have them buried or cremated, the Detroit Free Press said Monday. Specific details regarding those surveyed were not reported. It's always a...

By Gene Emery BOSTON (Reuters) - For people over 70, pacemakers that stimulate only one part of the heart are just as effective as newer and more expensive devices that apply electricity to two of the heart's four chambers, British researchers said. The finding suggested that the benefits of two-chamber pacemakers had been overestimated in older people with a heart condition known as atrioventricular block, according to the team led by William Toff of Britain's Leicester University. The...