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.

 

This article was found in News Scientist.

Life-saving medical implants like pacemakers and defibrillators face a big drawback: their batteries eventually run out. So every few years, patients need surgery to have the batteries replaced.

Now a company in New York state is planning to tackle the problem by providing patients with an implantable power source that recharges their implant's batteries using electricity generated by the patient's own body heat.

By continuously recharging the batteries, it saves the patient from frequent surgery. In some low power devices, it could even replace the batteries altogether, making such operations unnecessary.

The "biothermal battery" under development by Bio...

 

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Thu Jun 28, 9:08 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman whose defibrillator activated one week to the hour after her father died, and recorded the event, may provide the first documented evidence of "anniversary reaction," doctors reported.

The defibrillator acted as a pacemaker, perhaps saving the 50-year-old woman's life. Its function of keeping a precise record of when it was activated made it possible to establish the precise time of the event, the doctors reported.

In a dramatic extra twist to the story, the patient was standing by the open grave of her sister-in-law, who had herself died when she heard the news of the father's death.

Dr. Michae...

 

Canadian hospitals participate in first-ever clinical trial to evaluate new pacemaker system designed for use in MRI machines

Monday June 18
Unique pacemaker and lead features could enable hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to get MRI scans even with an implanted cardiac device.

Physicians at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, B.C., Foothills HSC in Calgary, AB, Hôpital Laval in Québec, Montreal Heart Institute, Québec, and the London HSC in Ontario are participating in an international clinical trial to study a unique pacemaker system, the Medtronic EnRhythm(R) MRI SureScan(TM) pacing system, the first-ever to be developed and tested specifically for use in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines under...

 

Some cardiac-device recipients don't want to give up sports, so a medical registry tracks how they're doing.

Pioneer Press
BY CHRISTOPHER SNOWBECK PIONEER PRESS

For heart patients who have defibrillators implanted in their chests, the conventional wisdom when it comes to competitive sports is simple: Stick to golf. Or bowling.

Doctors worry that rigorous athletic activity could stress a patient's heart and prompt either an appropriate or inappropriate shock from the defibrillator, which is designed to detect and correct potentially fatal heart-rhythm problems. Another concern is that the defibrillator's life-saving jolt might not be effective when an athlete is at the peak of exercise.

Bu...

 

By Heather May
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 06/12/2007 08:39:45 AM MDT

A researcher at LDS Hospital says he has dispelled a myth that has prevented some women from receiving a life-saving heart device.

John Day, a cardiologist who specializes in heart rhythm abnormalities, said there is an erroneous perception among doctors that women don’t benefit as much as men from heart-failure pacemaker defibrillators, which strengthen the heart and can shock it into restarting.

But he and a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic found the perception isn’t reality.

"Women do just as well as men, and if they are indicated for this life-saving techn...

 

The following, written by Patricia Barry, is from the June, ‘07 issue of AARP Bulletin. If this is an accurate description of the thoughts and actions of the people promoting prescription drugs, I have to wonder what the thoughts and actions are of a representative promoting medical devices such as pacemakers, joint replacements, etc.

Doctors Still Chummy With Drug Sales Reps

“There's a big bucket of money sitting in every office and every time you go in, you reach your hand in the bucket and grab a handful." That's how a sales manager at AstraZeneca described to colleagues the rewards of pitching the company's products to doctors. His unguarded remarks showed up on the Internet-and got him fired, as the company co...

 

I just read a post on an Apple site which documented some research done in Michigan by a student.

He discovered that the IPod interferred with patients' PM in 3 different ways:

Oversensing of events
Telemetry interference
Inhibit of PM occurred in 1.2% of study group.


I am taken aback by this finding, but I do believe it is correct.
For more info, google "IPod interferes with pacemaker"

 

By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, May 11 (HealthDay News) –– Implanted defibrillators, which deliver occasional jolts to the heart to keep it beating regularly, are becoming much more reliable, experts report.

"What really sticks out is the continuous improvement and the fact that we see a very low level of electronic failure," said Dr. Robert J. Hauser, a senior cardiac consultant at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, who led a study of the devices made by three American manufacturers.

His team was expected to present its findings Thursday at the annual meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society, in Denver.

"We've been collecting data for eight years, only failure data, and the devices remove...

 

By Liz Welter
Marshfield News-Herald

Grandma or Grandpa probably aren't tuned into an iPod.

But if they have a pacemaker, someone else's use of a portable music player can cause problems.

iPods were used in a study which demonstrated that the devices caused 50 percent of the pacemakers to malfunction.

The study found that iPods affected the pacemakers for a distance of up to 18 inches. In one case the pacemaker stopped working.

"Most older people don't have iPods, but they might have a pacemaker," said Dr. Shereif Rezkalla, a Marshfield Clinic cardiologist .

"I recommend to people, if they have a pacemaker, don't use an iPod. If sitting on an airplane or bus, and...

 

I just heard this on the news, and I want to share it with you.
To make it easier than having to copy the whole article, and comments, I invite all of you, to visit:
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/
2007/05/10/study-ipods-and-pacemakers-do-not-mix

I think you’ll all enjoy the comments.
Take care everybody,

~ Dominique ~

 

Company says just-approved Zephyr can last up to 14 years
BY CHRISTOPHER SNOWBECK
Pioneer Press

Which company's pacemaker is the one that keeps going and going and going for the longest period of time?

Little Canada-based St. Jude Medical announced regulatory approval Thursday in the U.S. and Europe for its new Zephyr line of pacemakers. Among other innovations, the Zephyr has an expected 14-year lifespan thanks to a new feature that conserves the amount of energy used in pacing the upper chambers of the heart, the company said.

Other pacemakers from the company last from five to 10 years, depending on the intensity of pacing required for a given patient's heart, said spokeswoman Kathleen Janas...

 

Thursday May 3, 10:29 am ET
St. Jude Medical Receives U.S., European Marketing Approval for Zephyr Line of Pacemakers

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Heart device maker St. Jude Medical Inc. said Thursday it received Food and Drug Administration and European marketing approval for a new type of pacemaker.
The approvals cover the Zephyr family of pacemakers, which are designed to save time by automatically performing follow-up testing before a patient sees a doctor.

In the European version, the Zephyr pacemaker can also tell doctors in about 90 seconds which device settings are best suited for individual patients, dispensing with an echocardiography procedure that can take between 30 minutes and 2 hours, St. Jude ...

 

Implanted Defibrillators: Wire Trouble
Study Shows Newer Wires in ICDs May Have Higher Failure Rates Than Older Models
By Salynn Boyles, WebMD Medical News

They were supposed to be more reliable, but the wires now used in devices implanted to protect the heart actually appear to be less reliable than earlier versions.

In a newly reported German study, the annual defect rate was as high as 20% after 10 years of use for wire leads used in implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs).

When researchers compared the failure rate of newer silicone wire leads to older polyurethane-coated leads, the older wires lasted longer. Roughly 93% of the polyurethane-insulated leads survived five ...

 

This press release about research was found at the Medscape heart newsletter:
"Other News Undiagnosed sleep apnea may be common in patients with pacemakers"

Thought you might find it interesting.


(WebMD) Heart patients with pacemakers have a high prevalence of undiagnosed sleep apnea, findings from a small European study suggest.

Researchers evaluated 98 pacemaker patients for sleep apnea. Fifty-nine percent of the patients had undiagnosed sleep apnea.

The findings are reported in the April issue of the American Heart Association publication Circulation.

Although it is not clear from the study if sleep apnea contributed to the
need for the pac...

 

MONDAY, March 12 (HealthDay News) -- Two out of three people given pacemakers for heart problems were found to have sleep apnea, which could worsen their cardiac disease, French researchers report.

"There have been previous studies that showed a lower prevalence [of sleep apnea] but the sensitivity of the methods used in those studies was insufficient to detect all cases," said lead researcher Dr. Patrick Levy, a professor of physiology at Grenoble University.In fact, 21 of the 98 pacemaker users who were tested in the study were found to have severe sleep apnea, meaning their breathing was interrupted at least 30 times each hour. That percentage equals that seen in the general population, the researchers said. Their report...

 

By DIANE COCHRAN
Of The Gazette Staff

Bill Daem doesn't get too excited about telephone calls from reporters - not after being featured in People magazine and on the CBS Evening News.

But his media presence passed a milestone of sorts last month when Daem, who recycles pacemakers to be used in developing countries, was mentioned in the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA.The four paragraphs devoted in JAMA to Daem's efforts were significant because the medical establishment generally disapproves of what he does.

Through his organization Heart Too Heart, Daem collects used pacemakers - surgically implanted devices that regulate the heartbeat - from funeral homes and famil...