The heart is the most important organ in the human body. The purpose of it is to pump oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to all parts of the body. It rarely occurs that the heart muscle become worn-out.. The threat to the heart’s normal function is in the diseases. (Landstinget i Värmland, 2008) In Sweden cardiovascular diseases are type of diseases which causes most deaths. 4 out of 10 people die in cardiovascular diseases and thousands die prematurely because of it. Today 12 percent of the Swedish population is suffering from cardiovascular diseases (Hjärt-Lungfonden, 2008) and today 40 000 of the Swedish population have a pacemaker. (CISIONWIRE, 2008) A treatment for a heart that is beating too slowly is receiving a pacemaker which keeps the heartbeat regular. (Hjärt-Lungfonden, 2008(2) The pacemaker system is divided into 2 parts and it is placed underneath the skin below the clavicle. The first part is the pacemaker itself, which is like a computer with batteries. Second part is the electrodes that with the help of the mobile x-ray pictures will be placed correctly. The procedure only takes a little less than a hour. There are different sorts of pacemakers and to make sure it is used most effective there are pacemakers which is helping only where it is needed. The reason for that is so that the heart’s natural way of working is disturbed as little as possible. (Hjärt-Lungfonden, 2008(3) The picture below show the stimulation of the a heart muscle from an electrode that is attached to the part of the pacemaker which contain the batteries. Dr. Zoll was a Harvard cardiologist and pioneer developed the first external pacemaker to restore normal rhythms in patients whose heart wasn’t beating as they should. The opposition ... ... middle of paper ... ...ch saves thousands of life from premature death or unnecessary inconvenience and pain. The development of of the pacemaker have come far since the first external pacemaker made by Paul Zoll, to the small 5 cm in diameter internal pacemaker. The limitations are few when the pacemaker works as it should. The benefits are the active life a normal person would have. The social issues that come with having a pacemaker are not an issue you can’t overcome, if you are able to have an active life. Ethical or not it is legal to remove a pacemaker on a dying patient if it is requested by the patient or the patient’s family. Every year about 5000 people in Sweden receive a pacemaker which hopefully extends their life length, and increase their ability to have an active life. This mechanical application of science has reduced the number of people affected by heart diseases.
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement or TAVR is the latest technology used principally for the treatment of aortic stenosis, a condition in which one of the major valves of the heart, the aortic valve, becomes tight and stiff, usually as a result of aging (3). Since many patients who need aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis are too sick to undergo major valve replacement surgery, they are unable to get the treatment they need. With the transcatheter aortic valve, this issue is bypassed because this valve can be implanted in the heart by accessing the patient’s heart through an artery in the groin. The valve can be inserted through a wire that can be pushed to the heart and the old valve is simply pushed to the side when the new valve is implanted. This technology has been in use in the US with Edwards’ Sapiens valve since 2011 and has saved the lives of many patients with aortic stenosis (4). Medtronic’s CoreValve uses similar technology and has won patent fights in Europe and has been in use internationally. However, within U.S., Medtronic has not been...
In this lab, I took two recordings of my heart using an electrocardiogram. An electrocardiogram, EKG pg. 628 Y and pg. 688 D, is a recording of the heart's electrical impulses, action potentials, going through the heart. The different phases of the EKG are referred to as waves; the P wave, QRS Complex, and the T wave. These waves each signify the different things that are occurring in the heart. For example, the P wave occurs when the sinoatrial (SA) node, aka the pacemaker, fires an action potential. This causes the atria, which is currently full of blood, to depolarize and to contract, aka atrial systole. The signal travels from the SA node to the atrioventricular (AV) node during the P-Q segment of the EKG. The AV node purposefully delays
Heart disease is one of the most common causes of the mortality and morbidity in most well developed countries. They come in different forms such as stroke and other cardiovascular diseases and it’s the number one cause of death in the state of America. In the year 2011 alone nearly 787,000 people were killed as a result of this epidemic. And this included Hispanic, Africans, whites and Americans. As for the Asian Americans or pacific Islanders, American Indians and the natives of Alaska, the concept to them was a second only to cancer. However, statistics has proved that a person gets heart attack every 34 seconds and in every 60 seconds, someone dies out of it which include other related event. Additionally, majority of the women are the
The science and history of the heart can be traced back as far as the fourth century B.C. Greek philosopher, Aristotle, declared the heart to be the most vital organ in the body based on observations of chick embryos. In the second century A.D, similar ideas were later reestablished in a piece written by Galen called On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body. Galen’s thesis was that the heart was the source of the body’s essential heat and most closely related to the soul. Galen made careful observations of the physical properties of the heart as well. He said “The heart is a hard flesh, not easily injured. In hardness, tension, in general strength, and resistance to injury, the fibers of the heart far surpasses all others, for no other instrument performs such continues, hard work as the heart”(Galen, Volume 1).
Ken Berger believes that Life Support for elderly patient isn’t benefiting them and is actually causing more harm to them. According to the “Dying on life support: is it fair? Article The Author Dr. Berger states in most cases when the end is near should doctors prolong life artificially? Dr. Berger the medical doctor at the Bellevue Hospital in New York City states how patients that are on life support in the intensive care unit are not showing signs of likelihood of surviving. A very well-known patients of Dr. Berger who is severely ill and he isn’t showing any signs of getting better but actually is showing signs of his body getting ill (Leung n.p). By law Dr. Berger must keep him alive which, he isn’t very pleased about it because he finds it very useful for the staff and also for the
than 9 square centimeters, was placed on the patient's chest at various angles. The transducer delivered ultrasound waves into the body and these
Chemical cardioversion uses drugs to stop the heart and then the heart restarts itself with its intrinsic (internal) beat. When these drugs are used, there must always be an electrical standby.
One of the leading causes of death in the United States is heart disease. “Approximately every 29 seconds one American will have a heart attack, and once a minute one American will die from a heart attack” (Ford-Martin and Odle, 915). According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine men over the age of 45 and women over the age of 55 are considered at risk for heart disease. Heart disease is a major cause of death. It is beneficial to individuals who seek to prevent heart disease to recognize the risks leading to heart attacks as they are one of the primary indications of developing heart disease; especially those that fall into the at risk age groups. These risks consist of some that cannot be changed such as heredity risks, or those that can change such as smoking habits. It is very important to know these specific risks for prevention and to understand the symptoms of heart attacks, such as sweating or the feeling of weakness so if these or other symptoms occur people are aware. Finally heart disease treatment is of vital importance if you experience a heart attack so you can learn how to prevent another one from occurring.
Firstly we lay them on the back to get the resting heart rate and we
Introduction: In year 10, biology, we have been studying the heart: the functions of the heart, the parts of the heart (ventricle, atrium) and heart problems. We have also been studying the heart rate of humans. We were asked to create an experiment to see what affects heart rate. We discovered that diet, stress, cholesterol levels, excitement, mass, age, temperature and exercise affect the heart.
Lidwell and Edgar H. Booth invented the first pacemaker. It was a portable device that consisting of two poles, one of which included a needle that would be plunged into a cardiac chamber. It was very crude, but it succeeded in reviving a stillborn baby at a Sydney hospital in 1928. The decades that followed, inventors came up with increasingly sophisticated versions of the pacemaker. However, these devices; which relied upon vacuum tubes; remained heavy and bulky, affording little or no mobility for patients. Colombian electrical engineer Jorge Reynolds Pombo developed a pacemaker in 1958 weighed 99 lbs and was powered by a 12-volt auto battery. Surgeons at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden were the first to place a fully implantable device into a patient in 1958. Rune Elmqvist and surgeon Ake Senning invented this pacemaker, which was implanted in the chest of Arne Larsson. The first device failed after three hours, the second after two days. Larsson would have 26 different pacemakers implanted in him. He died at the age of 86 in 2001, outliving both Elmqvist and Senning. In the world there are many heart attacks and as people grow they can get abnormalities in there heart(Medlineplus). When someone 's heart stops working it can be fixed with a pacemaker, it makes the heart beat properly. The artificial pacemaker is a wonder of modern science. A small, implantable device that regulates a human heartbeat through electrical impulses have saved millions of lives. The development of this vital medical device owes much to the advances in electronics and communications brought about by the Space Age.Pacemakers may be used for people who have heart problems that cause their heart to beat too slowly. A slow heartbeat is called Bradycardia two common problems that cause a slow heartbeat are sinus node disease and heart block. When your heart
Some treatments can be used. An electronic pace-maker can be inserted and it will send electronic impulse to the heart stimulating it to beat at a normal rhythm. Pace-makers are only inserted when the heart beats too slow. Tachycardis can also be very serious. It can lead to disabling symptoms and even death.
The heart is a pump with four chambers made of their own special muscle called cardiac muscle. Its interwoven muscle fibers enable the heart to contract or squeeze together automatically (Colombo 7). It’s about the same size of a fist and weighs some where around two hundred fifty to three hundred fifty grams (Marieb 432). The size of the heart depends on a person’s height and size. The heart wall is enclosed in three layers: superficial epicardium, middle epicardium, and deep epicardium. It is then enclosed in a double-walled sac called the Pericardium. The terms Systole and Diastole refer respectively and literally to the contraction and relaxation periods of heart activity (Marieb 432). While the doctor is taking a patient’s blood pressure, he listens for the contractions and relaxations of the heart. He also listens for them to make sure that they are going in a single rhythm, to make sure that there are no arrhythmias or complications. The heart muscle does not depend on the nervous system. If the nervous s...
A normal heart rhythm begins at the sinoatrial node and follows the hearts conduction pathway without any problems. Typically the sinoatrial node fires between 60-100 times per minute (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2013). When a person has Atrial Fibrillation, the sinoatrial node releases multiple quick impulses at a rate of 350 -600 times per minute. When this happens, the ventricles respond by beating around 120- 200 beats per minute, making it tough to identify an accurate heart rate. This arrhythmia can be the result of various things. During a normal heart beat, the electrical impulse begins at the sinoatrial node and travels down the conduction pathway until the ventricles contract. Once that happe...
Wyeth-Ayerst also focused its research on cardiovascular therapies and mental health products. Its cardiovascular research concentrates on medication for diseases such as arrhythmia and hypertension. Their anti-arrhythmia franchise leads the U.S. market, reflecting Wyeth-Ayerst’s and AHP’s recognition of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia (Tardiff 114).