If it works, it would be a great relief for pacemaker patients, because the battery-free device refer to its energy solely from the heartbeat.
“It could be an implant for life,” said the lead author of the study, Zhou Li of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. That is the goal of all scientists who conduct research in this area. Millions of people worldwide as a result of a chronic or acute illness are in need of a pacemaker. In spite of technological progress, whose batteries are often stiff and bulky and have to be renewed, under certain circumstances, several times.
The implantable Generator, a Team of researchers from China and the United States has developed, sitting on the surface of the Heart and bends with each heartbeat. By the movement, kinetic energy is generated that drives the pacemaker.
More: The pacemaker is 60
The Swedish engineer Arne Larsson was the first Patient who got 60 years ago, a heart pacemaker
The device must be designed for the people
The researchers stressed, however, that the long-term safety and durability of the devices should be explored in more detail, before a variant for humans can be developed. .
Since the physiology of pigs is the of the people is very similar, could benefit from a day to patients with heart defects, according to the study, which was published in the journal “Nature Communications”.
Experiments with so-called “Energy harvesters” – devices that gather energy from the impulses of the body – in the last few years, however, only in the case of small animals such as rats. Now, the researchers were able, full-grown pigs a such a device.
More: cardiac pacemakers with nuclear battery?
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The heart – a-beating miracleMiracle of nature
The heart is a miracle of nature: The fist-shaped hollow muscle contracts about seventy times a Minute and pumps so on the day of up to 10,000 liters through the body. And for a lifetime. If necessary – while Jogging, for example – transported to the heart of even five times as much blood through the body.
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The heart – a-beating miracleDouble The Work
Actually, our heart consists of two pumps. Because there is not only a circulatory system, but two. The right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs, where it will refuel itself with oxygen. At the same time, the left ventricle transports the same amount of blood throughout the body. Not so easy. Because in the systemic circulation is much higher pressure than the pulmonary circulation.
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The heart – a-beating miracleBoom, Boom
Each half of the Heart consists of an atrium and a Ventricle. The blood can only flow in one direction, as between the Atria and the chambers and between the chambers and the subsequent vessels of the heart valves (green), which work like check valves.
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The heart – a-beating miracleReal Muscle Work
The heart is just a muscle but a very special one. It is similar to those in the Arm and the leg, because he can pull just as fast and powerful. But he is especially persevering, and not tired. In addition, all of the heart muscle are coupled to cells to each other, so that always the whole heart muscle contracted at the same time.
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The heart – a-beating miracleNatural Pacemaker
Try to stop your heart by willpower the Beat! This doesn’t work, because the heart is not controlled by nerves, but its own clock has a Special muscle cells in the sinus node periodically produce a small Stromstroß that spreads quickly through the whole of the heart and contract. The sinus node is defective, the AV-node.
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The heart – a-beating miracleFrom the clock
The heart of the rhythm, for example, in ventricular fibrillation, it is not more relaxed, but remains constantly tense. Then the Organ can pump no more blood. A shock to the transmitter, the Defibrillator stops the life-threatening permanent excitation in the heart, so the natural cycle can take on donors. Even a layman can operate the device.
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The heart – a-beating miracleLife saver
A patient’s heart beats too slow, an artificial pacemaker. The device generates electrical impulses and transmits them to the heart muscle. For the first time implanted Doctors a pacemaker in 1958. A modern pacemaker has a function of duration of between five and twelve years of age, with an average of eight years
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The heart – a-beating miracleOpen heart
To be able to heart surgery, must put a stop to the Doctors for a short time and the cycle shut down – actually, a death sentence. But in 50 years, scientists solved the Dilemma: you developed the heart-lung machine. The device takes over for a short time, the function of the heart and lungs, enriches the blood with oxygen and pumps it through the body.
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The heart – a-beating miracleThrough the groin into the heart
The modern medicine allows doctors to examine the heart or to operate it without the patient’s chest cut open. To do this, the doctor performs a cardiac catheterization – a thin plastic tube through the bar, bend of the elbow or wrist, and pushes the tube through veins or arteries to the heart. The Patient is before a local anaesthetic.
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The heart – a-beating miracleFoldable Heart Valve
Is one of the heart valves is broken or worn out, a new one. Doctors refer to biological replacement of the pig or mechanical heart valves made of metal. Meanwhile, there are also artificial heart valves, which are collapsible (see photo) and therefore is minimally invasive using a catheter. Open heart surgery is no longer necessary.
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The heart – a-beating miracleClogged Vessels
The coronary arteries supply the heart muscle with blood, i.e. nutrients and oxygen. One of these vessels becomes clogged, no longer dies perfused tissue – a heart attack! With a Bypass, the cardiac surgeon bridged the narrowed site (green in the picture). For this, he takes a vein of the patient, which is no longer used, or a vascular prosthesis made of plastic.
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The heart – a-beating miracleLife saver metal
A coronary vessel is narrowed, you can introduce the doctor to a catheter in the blood vessel, and the constriction with a balloon dilating. Thus, the vessel pulls behind back, holding it with a Stent to open: these are fine tubes, made of metal, which support the blood vessel wall from the inside. The tubes can also be coated with drugs.
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The heart – a-beating miracleWhen your heart no longer wants to
The first heart transplant conducted by heart surgeons in the year 1967. At that time a Sensation. Meanwhile, the OP is no longer a rarity: a year transplant Doctors in the world, a few Thousand donor hearts from deceased people. The recipient must take life-long medication to prevent the body rejecting the foreign Organ.
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The heart – a-beating miracleLiving on credit
Donor hearts are scarce. If your heart is not functioning properly, such as in the case of a failure, it can be with an artificial heart support. The diseased heart remains in the body, it is supported by an implanted pump. Drive and power supply to the pump outside of the body.
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The heart – a-beating miracleAn artificial heart
Dream of the researchers is an artificial heart, the diseased heart of the patient is replaced in its entirety. It can be used without connecting hoses to the outside world into the body and maintenance-free for many years to beat. Prototypes already exist.