New medical device design can aid heart treatment
Tuesday, 08 March 2011 11:13
Cardiac specialists look set to benefit from a new medical device design, which can minimise the pain caused by the removal of damaged heart tissue.
Researchers from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University have come up with a new catheter that can extract damaged parts of the organ more efficiently.
The catheter is said to be "minimally invasive" and uses electrocardiogram, heat and pressure sensors to complete the job.
By using stretchy electronics, designers Yonggang Huang and John Rogers appear to have created a device that can be used in both the diagnosis and treatment stages.
"The use of one catheter to achieve all these functions will significantly improve clinical arrhythmia therapy by reducing the number of steps in the procedure, thereby saving time and reducing costs," commented Mr Huang.
Last year, Science Daily reported that researchers from North Carolina State University were working on a computerised heart catheter that could speed up the treatment process even further.
