Pace Yourself
We all have pacemakers. Most of us naturally:
Two sets of tiny electroactive "pacing cells" give rise to the heart's normal rhythm by stimulating other cells to contract in certain sequences. Potentially fatal arrythmias occur when these pacing cells are damaged or die...
If drugs don't work, the contemporary treatment for heart arrhymia is typically the installation of an electronic pacemaker. Implantable pacemakers have been prolonging lives since the 1960's.
And they've come a long way. Often these devices now are more than just pacemakers. The cardioverter defibrillator functions as both a pacemaker and a defibrillator - starting a stopped heart if necessary.
There are definite drawbacks to this device.
The device's battery must be changed periodically, a permanent catheter tube must be implanted in the chest to allow access to the pacemaker, and diodes that carry electric current must be embedded in the heart, creating infection risks.
Also, some patients, because of body size or other issues, can't tolerate an internal pacemaker. Fortunately there is a new treatment possibility on the horizon.
In guinea pig experiments, Johns Hopkins scientists fused common connective tissue cells taken from lungs with heart muscle cells to create a safe and effective biological pacemaker whose cells can fire on their own and naturally regulate the muscle's rhythmic beat.
If this could be perfected it would solve many of the problems that plague internal pacemakers. A biological pacemaker would be powered just like the rest of your body - batteries won't be needed. Catheters wouldn't be needed, and the risk of infection could be minimized.
I imagine this could become a simple outpatient procedure. It might be as simple as taking a small biopsy in a non-dangerous area of the body, developing the "device" and then injecting it into the necessary artery.
This would be an exciting alternative for people like my father-in-law. He's having to undergo outpatient surgery next month to replace the battery in his device. While he's in much less danger this time than when the device was first implanted, the family is still concerned about him.
Even if the patient's heart warrants the installation of an internal defibrillator, a biological pacemaker could help by taking a load off the battery. Without the beat-by-beat power drain, the defibrillator battery might last a lifetime.
-Hattip to KurzweilAI.