Electricity pills for the heart.Electricity pills for the heart Medical technology is making the diagnosis and treatment of heart ailments an easier pill to swallow. Researchers at the University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. in Ann Arbor have developed a simple method of temporarily influencing the heart's natural pacemaker natural pacemaker Cardiac pacing That cell or a group of cells within the heart which initiates each contraction. Normally, the S-A node performs the function; but in arrhythmias, cells almost anywhere in the heart can assume the role of the dominant pacemaker activity during diagnostic procedures or brief treatment of abnormal heart rate. The device is an electrocardiographic electrocardiographic emanating from or pertaining to electrocardiography. electrocardiographic monitoring maintenance of a more or less continuous surveillance of a patient's cardiac status by means of electrocardiography. electrode sealed within a capsule and connected to a thin, insulated stainless steel line. Once swallowed, the electrode slides out of the capsule, allowing the physician to make an electrical connection with the esophageal wall--only 1 centimeter away from the left atrium of the heart Noun 1. left atrium of the heart - the left upper chamber of the heart that receives blood from the pulmonary veins atrium sinistrum, left atrium atrium cordis, atrium of the heart - the upper chamber of each half of the heart . An electrical pulse lasting 10 to 30 seconds is then delivered, and the electrode is reeled in and recovered. The device is used to induce heart stress during diagnostic imaging procedures in which the patient must lie very still, says Janice Jenkins, an electrical engineer at the University of Michigan. It is also being used to treat patients with abnormally high heart rate, a condition called tachycardia tachycardia: see arrhythmia. tachycardia Heart rate over 100 (as high as 240) beats per minute. When it is a normal response to exercise or stress, it is no danger to healthy people, but when it originates elsewhere, it is an arrhythmia. . In these people a brief electrical stimulation of the heart often slows heart rates. Previous methods of stimulating the heart's pacemaker activity have involved either surgically placing a catheter directly into the heart or delivering a large external jolt of electricity. |
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