Using light pulses as a model for electrical defibrillation, scientists developed a method to assess and modulate the heart function. The research team has thus paved the way for an efficient and direct treatment for cardiac arrhythmias. This may be an alternative for the strong and painful electrical shocks currently used.
Using light pulses as a model for electrical defibrillation, Göttingen scientists developed a method to assess and modulate the heart function. The research team from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and the University Göttingen Medical Center thus paved the way for an efficient and direct treatment for cardiac arrhythmias. This may be an alternative for the strong and painful electrical shocks currently used.
"We developed a new and much milder method which allows the heart to get back into the right rhythm," says Stefan Luther, Max Planck Research Group leader at the MPI-DS and professor the University Göttingen Medical Center."Our results show that it is possible to control the cardiac system with much lower energy intensity," he continues.
"Instead of administering a single high-energy shock to restore normal heart rhythm, we use our understanding of the dynamics of cardiac arrhythmias to gently terminate them." explains Sayedeh Hussaini, first author of the study."This results in a subtle treatment method with far less energy per pulse, more than 40 times less compared to the conventional strategy" she reports.
It is still elusive to what extent interactions between different cell types of the heart influence the normal heart rhythm and possibly trigger life-threatening arrhythmias. A new measurement method ...
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