Atrial fibrillation – a form of irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia – leads to more than 454,000 hospitalisations and nearly 160,000 deaths in the US alone each year. Globally, it is estimated that approximately 60 million people are affected by the condition.
Pacemakers are used to regulate the heartbeats of people with chronic heart diseases like atrial fibrillation and other forms of arrhythmia although they require an invasive procedure to install and can be extremely painful.
University of Arizona researchers believe their new design could eliminate many of the issues faced by users of currently available pacemakers which work by implanting one or two leads into the heart with hooks or screws that send an electrical shock through the heart to reset the beat if a dangerous irregularity is detected.
“All of the cells inside the heart get hit at one time, including the pain receptors, and that’s what makes pacing or defibrillation painful,” said researcher...