Pacemaker without battery current from organs

Pacemaker without battery

01/21/2014

With a pacemaker can treat heart-related unconsciousness, dizziness attacks and feelings of weakness, which have their cause in a too slow heartbeat. The implantation of a pacemaker is usually a blessing for these people.

Optimum pacemaker performance can only be guaranteed by periodic checks that check the state of charge of the pacemaker battery and ensure proper functioning.The doctors can also read out various data of the pacemaker function, such as how often the pacemaker in the past had to support the heart rhythm with impulses or whether there were special incidents in the heart rhythm.

Motion generates electricity
Future pacemakers could possibly get by without batteries. US scientists have developed a device that will permanently derive the energy needed to operate through the natural motion of the organs. This could change the battery in other electronic implants in the future belong to the past, as the scientists report to John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the journal "PNAS".

The movements of the heart and lungs can be quasi „serve as an inexhaustible source of energy during the lifetime of a patient“, so the researchers. The novel device uses the so-called piezoelectric effect for its operation. In this, certain materials generate electrical stress due to elastic deformation of the material. The material used is a lead zirconium titanate mixture.

A single position of the energy producer delivered a voltage of up to 3.7 volts in experiments on the hearts of cattle and sheep. The required 8 volts needed to operate the device could create multiple interconnected layers. Currently people with pacemakers still have to undergo regular surgery so that the batteries can be changed.

Caregivers of pacemakers and similar devices currently have to undergo regular surgery to change the batteries. This is associated with risks such as infections. The new way of generating energy could avoid this and at the same time reduce costs. (Fr)