A “revolutionary” pacemaker reverses heart failure: a study
Pacemaker is a small device that is placed (implanted) in the chest to regulate the heartbeat. It is used to prevent the heart from beating too slowly. A recent study has developed a revolutionary pacemaker that restores the heart’s naturally irregular heartbeat.
Manaaki ManawaThe Center for Cardiology at the University of Auckland led the study, and the results have been published in Basic Research in Cardiology.
The revolutionary pacemaker is set to be tested on heart patients in New Zealand this year after successful animal testing. “Currently, all pacemakers synchronize the heart metronomically, which means a very steady, steady pace. But when you measure your heart rate in a healthy individual, you find that it is constantly in motion,” said the professor. Julian Patonleading researcher and leader of Manaaki Manawa.
“If you analyze your heart rate, you will find that your heart rate is related to your breathing. It rises during inhalation and decreases with exhalation, and it is a natural phenomenon in all animals and humans. And we are talking about very ancient animals that were on the planet 430 million years ago.”
Twelve years ago, Paton was part of a team of researchers who decided to study the operation of this variation. They made a mathematical model that predicted to save energy. This led them to ask why metronomic heartbeat was used in patients with heart failure who lacked energy. They asked, “Why don’t we want them with this variation?”
All patients with cardiovascular disease lose heart rate variability, which is an early sign that something is wrong. “People with high blood pressure, people with heart failure, their heart rate doesn’t change from breathing. It may be a little, but it’s very, very depressed, very repressed,” Paton said. “We decided to put the heart rate fluctuations back into the animals with heart failure and see if it was of any use.”
Following positive signals from rats, the latest published study was in an animal model of major heart failure conducted by Dr. Julia Shanks and Dr. Rohit Ramchandra.
“And the great news is that we believe we have now found a way to reverse heart failure,” Dr. Ramchandra said.
DR Julia Shanksthe researcher who explained the study explained: “There really is nothing on the market that will cure heart failure. Medications only make you feel better. They do not solve the problem that you have damaged tissue. It does not shrink as effectively as it did. Our new pacemaker brings back this variation, which is, of course, natural, in a way that could be called a “natural pacemaker.”
Dr. Ramchandra said: “Currently, pacemakers trigger a metronomically steady heart rate, but this study shows that the introduction of natural heart rate variability improves the heart’s ability to pump blood through the body. Another big news is that we are getting a 20 percent improvement in heart power pumping blood through the body. And 20 percent is a big deal. “
“The pacemaker is almost like a bionic device,” Paton said. “It understands the body’s signals that tell the device when we inhale and when we exhale. And then the device has to communicate back to the body and accelerate the heart during inhaling and exhaling.”
Seeing the results, the interventional cardiologist Dr Wil Harrison Middlemore Hospital of Auckland pointed out, “A very interesting study. We know clinically that permanent pacing is to some extent ‘non-physiological,’ and cardiomyopathy caused by pacing is a well-known phenomenon. It’s exciting to see if the findings are passed on to humans.”
DR Martin Stilesa cardiologist at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand, who is leading the study, said: “We usually see improvements in heart function with current pacemakers, but this bionic pacemaker has exceeded our expectations. This discovery could revolutionize the way heart failure patients are in the future.”
Source: ANI