MSGID: 1:317/3 64a6439c   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Dissolving cardiac device monitors, treats heart disease    
    Soft, wireless implant monitors the heart without requiring removal    
      
     Date:   
         July 5, 2023   
     Source:   
         Northwestern University   
     Summary:   
         Researchers have developed a soft, flexible, wireless device   
         to monitor and treat heart disease and dysfunction in the days,   
         weeks or months following traumatic heart-related events. And,   
         after the device is no longer needed, it harmlessly dissolves   
         inside the body, bypassing the need for extraction.   
      
      
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   Nearly 700,000 people in the United States die from heart disease every   
   year, and one-third of those deaths result from complications in the   
   first weeks or months following a traumatic heart-related event.   
      
   To help prevent those deaths, researchers at Northwestern and George   
   Washington (GW) universities have developed a new device to monitor   
   and treat heart disease and dysfunction in the days, weeks or months   
   following such events.   
      
   And, after the device is no longer needed, it harmlessly dissolves inside   
   the body, bypassing the need for extraction.   
      
   About the size of a postage stamp, the soft, flexible device uses an array   
   of sensors and actuators to perform more complicated investigations than   
   traditional devices, such as pacemakers, can accomplish. Not only can it   
   be placed on various sections of the heart, the device also continuously   
   streams information to physicians, so they can remotely monitor a   
   patient's heart in real time. The device also is highly transparent,   
   allowing physicians to observe specific heart regions to make a diagnosis   
   or provide a treatment.   
      
   The research will be published on Wednesday (July 5) in the journal   
   Science Advances.   
      
   "Several serious complications, including atrial fibrillation and heart   
   block, can follow cardiac surgeries or catheter-based therapies,"   
   said Northwestern's Igor Efimov, an experimental cardiologist who   
   co-led the study. "Current post- surgical monitoring and treatment   
   of these complications require more sophisticated technology than   
   currently available. We hope our new device can close this gap in   
   technology. Our transient electronic device can map electrical activity   
   from numerous locations on the atria and then deliver electrical stimuli   
   from many locations to stop atrial fibrillation as soon as it starts."   
   "Many deaths that occur following heart surgery or a heart attack could   
   be prevented if doctors had better tools to monitor and treat patients   
   in the delicate weeks and months after these events take place," added   
   GW's Luyao Lu, who co-led the work with Efimov. "The tool developed in   
   our work has great potential to address unmet needs in many programs of   
   fundamental and translational cardiac research."  Efimov is a professor of   
   biomedical engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering   
   and professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of   
   Medicine. Lu is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at GW.   
      
   This work builds on Efimov's previous work to develop cardiac implants to   
   monitor and temporarily pace the heart. In 2021, Efimov and Northwestern   
   professor John A. Rogers introduced the first-ever transient pacemaker,   
   published in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Then, earlier this year,   
   Efimov's team unveiled a graphene "tattoo" for treating cardiac   
   arrhythmia, published in Advanced Materials.   
      
   "After heart surgeries, surgeons sometimes insert temporary wires, which   
   are connected to external current generators, to provide electrical   
   stimulation during temporary heart block caused by the surgery," Efimov   
   said. "Recently, we developed a bioresorbable pacemaker to replace such   
   a wire. Post-operative atrial fibrillation requires a more complicated   
   approach based on a multi- electrode array for sensing and stopping atrial   
   fibrillation. Now, we present a novel technology to achieve this goal."   
   Tested in small animal models, the new device provides functions beyond   
   those of a traditional pacemaker. While a pacemaker only can provide   
   one overall picture of the heart (whether or not the heart is beating),   
   the transient device provides a more nuanced picture. Not only can it   
   restore normal heart rhythms, it also can show which areas of the heart   
   are functioning well and which areas are not. The device's transparent   
   nature also allows researchers to optically map many important cardiac   
   physical parameters through the device to better study heart function   
   and heart disease mechanisms.   
      
   After a clinically relevant period, the device -- which is made of   
   biocompatible materials approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration   
   - - simply dissolves into benign products. Similar to absorbable stitches,   
   the device degrades and then completely disappears through the body's   
   natural biological processes. The device's bioresorbable nature could   
   reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes by avoiding   
   complications from surgical extraction and lowering infection risks.   
      
   The study, "Soft, bioresorbable, transparent microelectrode arrays for   
   multimodal spatiotemporal mapping and modulation of cardiac physiology,"   
   was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National   
   Institutes of Health.   
      
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   Journal Reference:   
      1. Zhiyuan Chen, Zexu Lin, Sofian N. Obaid, Eric Rytkin, Sharon   
      A. George,   
         Christopher Bach, Micah Madrid, Miya Liu, Jessica LaPiano, Amy   
         Fehr, Xinyu Shi, Nathaniel Quirion, Benjamin Russo, Helen Knight,   
         Anthony Aduwari, Igor R. Efimov, Luyao Lu. Soft, bioresorbable,   
         transparent microelectrode arrays for multimodal spatiotemporal   
         mapping and modulation of cardiac physiology. Science Advances,   
         2023; 9 (27) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi0757   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230705143014.htm   
      
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