Researchers Develop Device To Power Pacemakers From Heartbeat.

In continuing coverage, the Los Angeles Times (11/6, Brown) "Booster Shots" blog reports that on Sunday, researchers from the University of Michigan presented an abstract at the American Heart Association's meeting on the "energy harvesting device" they are developing. Lead researcher M. Amin Karami explained that the device will ultimately, "take the vibrations created by a heartbeat and convert them into enough electrical energy to power a pacemaker." He said researchers used a "piezoelectric harvester" to record "how much power they could produce over 100 heart beats at differing heart rates." They found the energy harvester could generate "more than 10 times the power required to operate a pacemaker, as long as heart rate was between 20 and 600 beats per minute," and it was "about half the size of the batteries used in today's pacemakers." However, Karami said the study team, which "does not yet have a prototype pacemaker using the energy harvester," still needs to "conduct safety testing in animals and humans."

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Recycle, reduce, reuse: Americans’ heart devices reimplanted safely in India, from MedCity News

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - U.S. patients' used heart devices can be safely implanted in seriously ill heart disease patients in the developing world, a study out Monday suggests.

"These devices did work well. They delivered appropriate shocks and saved lives," said lead researcher Dr. Behzad B. Pavri, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
The devices, known as implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), automatically deliver potentially life-saving electrical shocks to the heart in people at high risk of cardiac arrest. But in the developing world, few people have the money to afford the cost - about $5,000 in the U.S. for pacemakers, and four times that for ICDs.

A few studies have already shown that it's possible to reuse pacemakers, devices that use electrical pulses to the heart to keep a normal heartbeat.

for complete article: Recycle, reduce, reuse: Americans’ heart devices reimplanted safely in India

India’s City Dwellers at Greater Risk than Americans for Heart Disease, from Scientific American Blog

Image courtesy of iStockphoto/JeremyRichards

Diabetes, heart disease, stroke and other afflictions that once primarily plagued wealthier, western countries are now accelerating in poorer nations.

A new study reveals that risk factors for heart disease in Indian cities are now more prevalent than they are in the U.S. or Western Europe per capita. And with a population of more than 1.1 billion, India’s health is a major global concern.

Cardiovascular disease is still the leading killer in the U.S., but it has been on steady decline for decades. In India and other countries, such as China and Brazil, this and other diseases linked to an unhealthier lifestyle, are on the rise.

“India has the dubious distinction of being known as the coronary and diabetes capital of the world,” Prakash Deedwania, of the University of California, San Francisco and co-author of the report, said in a prepared statement.

For the study, the researchers assessed the health of 6,198 adults who lived in 11 cities in various parts of India. Across the country about 79 percent of men and 83 percent of women didn’t get much exercise, and 41 percent of men and 45 percent of women were overweight or obese, the team found. And high-fat, low-fruit-and-vegetable diets were common. All of these trends put people at higher odds for developing—and dying from—cardiovascular disease. The findings were presented April 20 in Dubai at the World Congress of Cardiology.

for more of the article...

About the Author: Katherine Harmon is an associate editor for Scientific American covering health, medicine and life sciences. Follow on Twitter @katherineharmon.