How a pacemaker, smaller than a grain of rice, could revolutionise cardiac medicine
A new, tiny pacemaker, smaller than a grain of rice, could play a big role in the future of medicine, according to the engineers who developed it.
Researchers at Northwestern University in the US state of Illinois unveiled the device, which they say is the smallest pacemaker in the world, in a study published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Nature.
The device is still years away from being used in humans, but it could eventually be useful for infants with congenital heart defects and for adults, the researchers say.
'I think it's really exciting technology that will change how electrical stimulation is done,' says Igor Efimov, a Northwestern experimental cardiologist who co-led the study.
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The device – which is just 1.8mm (1/16th of an inch) wide, 3.5mm long and 1mm thick – can be inserted with a catheter or syringe.
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