By Debbie Gilbert

For people with heart problems, having an implanted cardiac pacemaker can be a lifesaver. But there’s a big disadvantage: If you need a magnetic resonance imaging test to diagnose an illness or injury, you can’t have it.
And it’s not for the reason you might think.

"Metal itself is not the problem," said Dr. Karthik Ramaswamy, a cardiac electrophysiologist with Northeast Georgia Heart Center.

People with certain types of metal objects inside their bodies, such as steel rods, plates or staples, cannot have an MRI because the machine contains gigantic magnets that could actually pull these objects out.

In recent years, most medic...

 

Sign me up! :-)

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/article/6762/

 

Copy and paste link into browser


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HEART_DEVICES?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

Are you tired of trying to get information about your heart condition from your cardiologist? Well take a look at what's available on EBay.

PORTABLE HANDHELD ECG EKG HEART MONITOR, NEW - Item number: 130220551045

Get the optional USB cable for only $7 extra and it will download the data to your PC and the software which will diagnose the data and give you your condition. The optional software ($35) will include 13 extra different types of arrhythmias. Looks pretty darn interesting.

This has to be a cardiologist's worst nightmare. A patient with the ability to have "do it your self EKG" and the software to give them a diagnosis.

Wonder when we will be able to get a do it yourself pacemaker ki...

 

I am sure some of you are on the drug DIGITEK. If you are not aware, it has been recalled. Check with you Pharmacist, your Doctor, go on-line at www.actavis.us or call 888-276-6166 for more information

 

So a man went to jail, and he was in his cell, when someone said 34, and the whole hall erupts in laughter. The man asked his cellmate what was so funny. he answered, '' Well, weve all been here so long, that instead of telling the jokes, we numbered them. try it.''. so the man says ''72'', and everyone is silent. the man asked his cellmate what was wrong, and he answered '' well, some can tell 'em, and some can't''.

 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - Implanted heart
defibrillators, which automatically shock a fluttering heart
back into a normal rhythm, can be hacked from the outside, U.S.
researchers reported on Wednesday.

There is no immediate danger to patients, the team of computer experts, electrical engineers and cardiologists
said.

But they made one Medtronic Inc device give up
patient information off its computer chip, got it to fire
improperly, and ran its battery down, all using inexpensive
equipment.

They offered a way to fix these weaknesses and said they
were publishing their findings not to frighten patie...

click to read more...

 

I found this article in Reader's Digest, and I was so fascinated that I had to share it with you.
In the near future, there will be a new protein, like a seed that causes new vessels to sprout, creating a network of capillaries and small arteries.
Could that be the end of open heart bypass surgery, or a cure for CHF?
Please read on.

~ Dominique ~

New Treatment for Heart Transplant Hopefuls
An experimental treatment is giving desperately ill heart patients a new lease on life.
By Lisa Collier Cool
From Reader's Digest
February 2008

Last Resort

Jim Blevins and Gail Keller were heart patients who'd run out of time. They had literally no options left—until they volu...

 

Have you seen the new pm by Biotronik. I read about it and it sounds great. It is called the Biotronik Cylos 990, Works on the right ventricular and knows when it is not doing its job. The reactions on it are apparently much quicker than an ordinary pm.

Bella

 

Just an FYI...I didn't know if anyone has read the story about the lab-created heart. Here is a link for the story at CNN if you're interested:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/01/14/rebuilt.heart/index.html

I'll also paste the news below in case you don't feel like cutting and pasting into your web browser.

ela-girl

---------------------------------------------------------

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Creating a replacement heart for some of the sickest patients may be one step closer, if new research in rats pans out in humans.


Researchers stripped cells from a rat heart and replaced them, getting them to grow into a "bioartificial" heart.

Researchers at the ...

 

Here's a good article-I've been telling people this for years!


Antibiotics May Not Aid Sinus Infections

By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer


CHICAGO (AP) -- Just in time for runny nose season, new research suggests routine sinus infections aren't really helped by antibiotics and other medicine that's often prescribed.

In the British study, people suffering from facial pain and a runny nose with greenish or yellowish mucous generally improved within about two weeks - whether they took the standard antibiotic amoxicillin, steroid nose spray or fake medicine.

The results, based on patients' reporting whether their symptoms had improved, echo previous findings in children.<...

 

Many of us feel like we may be walking around with a disaster waiting to happen in our chests. The following excerpts from an article on defective devices will not help those feelings but it is something very real that we have to consider. The article was of great interest to me because it tells me many things about what my recourse may be in the event I get a defective device as my replacement pacemaker, which will probably be in 2008.

From the Austin American Statesman - “The case dates back to a 1976 law enacted in response to the public health disaster caused by the Dalkon Shield intra-uterine birth control device. At the time, the federal government did not regulate medical devices. After lawyers for injured victims unc...

 

Pacemaker, created in Minnesota, marks 50th birthday
Happy Birthday to the pacemaker, which turns 50 years old today.

By Tim Harlow, Star Tribune
October 31, 2007 – 12:37 PM

A power failure on Oct. 31, 1957 that stretched from St. Cloud to Faribault, Minn. and eastward to Eau Claire, Wis. led to a conversation between University of Minnesota Medical School surgeon Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Earl Bakken, the founder of Medtronic.

Lillehei asked Bakken to develop a battery back-up for his AC-operated pacemakers.

It took a few weeks, but Bakken created the first wearable, battery-operated external pacemaker. Following tests in University of Minnesota labs, the device was applied to a pedia...

 

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Cardiac researchers say a new drug may help treat the abnormal heartbeat called atrial fibrillation.

The drug, dronedarone, is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration but has proven effective in two major trials, with fewer side effects than existing medications, according to a report in the Sept. 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

And in the same issue of the journal, researchers say a special pacemaker can help prevent the development of atrial fibrillation in people with sinus-node disease -- a dysfunction of the cardiac region controlling heartbeat.

The American Heart Association estimates that 2.2 million Americans, many of them elde...

 

MUMBAI — Doctors here successfully carried out a surgery to fit a pacemaker on a 15-hour-old baby, born with a slow heartbeat.

The baby, not yet been named, was diagnosed with a intrauterine congential heart block and slow heartrate of 45 as compared to normal 120 beats per minute about two months before his birth when his mother went for an ultrasound check.

It is a rare case as it occurs one in 20,000 cases, Wockhardt hospital cardiac surgeons who performed the surgery said.

The parents, Narendra and Sangeeta Mishra, were told about this and decided not to terminate the baby as Sangeetha conceived this baby after 12 years of marriage.

The cardiac team coordinated with the hospital at Airoli in ...

 

PITTSFORD, NY, AUGUST 9, 2007 – Biophan Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: BIPH), a developer of next-generation biomedical technology, today announced that the Company has entered into a definitive agreement with Medtronic, Inc., (NYSE: MDT) to acquire Biophan’s MRI safety patents in a transaction worth $11 million in cash. The transaction is anticipated to close within 60 days.

Under the terms of the agreement, Biophan will transfer to Medtronic its MRI safety patent portfolio, which includes technologies that make medical devices, such as pacemakers, safe for use with MRI.

“Since our founding in 2000, our goal has been to develop and commercialize innovative technologies related to medical imaging safety, with a focu...

 

DENVER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Study Will Look Into the Evolution Of AV Conduction Disorders in Pacemaker Patients.
ELA Medical, Inc., a Sorin Group company (MIL:SRN) that specializes in the design and manufacture of implantable pacemakers and defibrillators, announced the first U.S. implant in NATURE, an observational study that will enroll 1,440 patients in North America and Europe.

The objective of the NATURE study is to observe the evolution of atrio-ventricular conduction disorders in pacemaker patients over a 2-year time period. Patients implanted with either ELA Medical / Sorin Group's SYMPHONY(TM) model 2550 or REPLY(TM) DR (1) dual chamber pacemakers will be included in the study. Data will be collected using AIDA...

 

This article might be of interest to everyone. It sounds like a marvelous invention. I hope it will soon be available. It's about time that someone comes up with a pacemaker aesthetically better for thin skinned women, and men.

~ Dominique ~

Features:
Anatomically Correct Permanent Pacemaker Casing
- Sergio Sanchez-Zambrano, MD Cleburne, Texas.

Article.

The electronics of current implantable devices are outstanding and truly life-saving devices. However, the problem of size and configuration of these implantable devices has only been partially addressed, specifically on the issue of size reduction.

As a result, I have designed and patented an anatomically correct permanent pa...

 

Distance Runners from Around the World Who Benefit from Medical Technology To Run this Fall in Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Events

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twenty-four long-distance runners who benefit from medical technology were selected as 2007 Global Heroes today by the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. The honorees, which include a former Mrs. America, a former mayor of St. Paul, Minn., and twin sisters who each have an ICD, hail from the United States, South Africa, Spain, Canada and the Netherlands. Each Global Hero will run the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon or Medtronic TC 10 Mile on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007.

Global Heroes is a unique program that celebrates the accomplishments of runners who have medical ...

 

We frequently have people asking questions or telling us about about having treatment for artial fibrillation. I thought the following article from the Temple Daily Telegram on 7-16-07 might be interesting to some.

SCOTT & WHITE USES NEW HEART DEVICE

Scott and White surgeons in Temple, TX, Monday were the first to use a new device they helped develop for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is the most common form of heart arrhythmia, affecting more than two million people each year.

After 18 months of design, engineering and testing, Scott and White cardiothoracic surgeons Dr. Charles Reiter and Dr. Erik Beyer said they were excited to debut the new device in the operating room.