Thousands of patients with congestive heart failure benefit from automatic implantable cardiac defibrillators (AICDs) that deliver shocks to the heart to correct abnormal heart rhythms.
Thousands of patients with congestive heart failure benefit from automatic implantable cardiac defibrillators (AICDs) that deliver shocks to the heart to correct abnormal heart rhythms. These defibrillators improve survival in patients who are at risk for sudden cardiac death.
AICDs administer shocks based on data from intra-cardiac electrocardiograms (ECGs) obtained from leads that measure the heart’s electrical activity. However, do these devices receive enough information to shock accurately in all cases?
“Existing systems in patients primarily sense the ECG,” said Marc D. Feldman, M.D., professor of cardiology at UT Health San Antonio. “They don’t sense blood pressure or stroke volume — how much blood is being pumped out of the heart. Since physicians in the emergency room measure blood pressure and stroke volume at the time of an abnormal heart rhythm before deciding to shock the patient, we believe AICDs should do the same.”
Dr. Feldman worked with UT Austin electrical engineers Jonathan W. Valvano, Ph.D., and John A. Pearce, Ph.D., to help create a smarter implantable defibrillator.
Read more at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Photo credit: yourschantz via Pixabay
