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Scientists in Japan design first optical pacemaker for laboratory research
May 28, 2008The world's first optical pacemaker is described in an article published today in Optics Express, the Optical Society's open-access journal. A team of scientists at Osaka University in Japan show that powerful, but very short, laser pulses can help control the beating of heart muscle cells.
"If you put a large amount of laser power through these cells over a very short time period, you get a huge response," says Nicholas Smith, who led the research. The laser pulses cause the release of calcium ions within the cells, Smith explains, and this action forces the cells to contract.
This technique provides a tool for controlling heart muscle cells in the laboratory, a breakthrough that may help scientists better understand the mechanism of heart muscle contraction.
One potential application of this technology is in studying uncoordinated contractions in heart muscle. Normally, heart muscle contracts in a highly coordinated fashion, and this is what allows the heart to pump blood through the vasculature. But in some people, this coordinated beating breaks down, and the heart twitches irregularly-a condition known as fibrillation.
The new laser technique may allow scientists to create a form of fibrillation in the test tube. The lasers can destabilize the beating of the cells in laboratory experiments by introducing a beat frequency in one target cell distinct from the surrounding cells. This would allow scientists to study irregular heart beats on a cellular level and screen anti-fibrillation drugs.
Outside the laboratory, exposing heart muscle cells to powerful laser pulses can have its drawbacks. Although the laser pulses last for less than a trillionth of a second, damaging effects can build up over time and this currently limits the possibility of clinical applications.
Optical Society of America
One potential application of this technology is in studying uncoordinated contractions in heart muscle. Normally, heart muscle contracts in a highly coordinated fashion, and this is what allows the heart to pump blood through the vasculature. But in some people, this coordinated beating breaks down, and the heart twitches irregularly-a condition known as fibrillation.
The new laser technique may allow scientists to create a form of fibrillation in the test tube. The lasers can destabilize the beating of the cells in laboratory experiments by introducing a beat frequency in one target cell distinct from the surrounding cells. This would allow scientists to study irregular heart beats on a cellular level and screen anti-fibrillation drugs.
Outside the laboratory, exposing heart muscle cells to powerful laser pulses can have its drawbacks. Although the laser pulses last for less than a trillionth of a second, damaging effects can build up over time and this currently limits the possibility of clinical applications.
Optical Society of America
Pacemaker Current Events and Pacemaker News RSSNew therapy gives hope for very severe depression
Thanks to a new method there is a reason for hope for patients with very severe depression. Physicians at the University Clinics of Bonn and Cologne have treated ten patients with deep brain stimulation.
Harvesting energy from nature's motions
By taking advantage of the vagaries of the natural world, Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life.
U-M discovery about biological clocks overturns long-held theory
University of Michigan mathematicians and their British colleagues say they have identified the signal that the brain sends to the rest of the body to control biological rhythms, a finding that overturns a long-held theory about our internal clock.
Patients who received donated pacemakers survive without complications
Patients who received refurbished pacemakers donated from Detroit area funeral homes survived without complications from the devices, according to a case series reported by the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center.
Michigan hospital launches gene therapy study for Parkinson's disease
A Michigan hospital is embarking on a research study for advanced Parkinson's disease using a state-of-the-art treatment called gene transfer.
Women with Atrial Fibrillation Are at Significantly Higher Risk of Stroke and Death Compared to Men and Receive Less Attention
Even though the incidence of atrial fibrillation is higher in men than women, a review of past studies and medical literature completed by cardiac experts at Rush University Medical Center shows that women are more likely than men to experience symptomatic attacks, a higher frequency of recurrences, and significantly higher heart rates during atrial fibrillation, which increases the risk of stroke.
Few complications 1 year after aortic valve implantation
Research presented at the 21st annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), demonstrated an "exceptionally low" rate of complications one year after implantation of transcatheter aortic valve prostheses.
WUSTL research finds individual cells isolated from the biological clock can keep daily time, but are unreliable
Alexis Webb enters a small room at Washington University in St. Louis with walls, floor and ceiling painted dark green, shuts the door, turns off the lights and bends over a microscope in a black box draped with black cloth. Through the microscope, she can see a single nerve cell on a glass cover slip glowing dimly.
Syncope and implantable loop recorders: Good value for money?
The REVISE Study (Reveal in the Investigation of Syncope and Epilepsy) found that 1 in 8 adult patients in the United Kingdom, previously thought to be suffering from epilepsy or in whom this diagnosis was in doubt, in fact had symptoms as a result of an abnormal pattern of heart beating, commonly found in patients with syncope (fainting).
Mayo Clinic Proceedings reviews deep brain stimulation to treat psychiatric diseases
Pioneering therapeutic trials to investigate the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in hard-to-treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's syndrome are underway at multiple medical centers around the world.
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