Infrared laser shown to quicken heart rate, gives hope for ultra-small pacemakers

Here’s a fascinating one. Just years after a researcher in Japan realized that lasers could stimulate nerves, a professor of biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University which includes cohorts from Case Western Reserve have found that an analogous is correct with the heart. By an Infrared laser on an early embryonic heart, tests were ready to show that the muscle was ” in lockstep with the laser pulse rate.” The crew also found no signs of laser damage after a couple of hours of experimenting, though obviously more extensive research can be required before any medical agency allowed the sort of device to be beamed underneath a human chest. The hope this is that this discovery could in the future end in ultra-small, implantable pacemakers, or better still, to ” pace an adult heart during surgery.” There’s nary a mention of when these things will actually be ready for FDA oversight, but there’s a downright creepy video of it all inside the source link. Consider yourself warned.

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This post is tagged: heart, hope, laser, rate, Shown, ultrasmall