Pacemakers to be powered by beating heart

HEARTBEATS could soon power pacemakers – sparing patients the ordeal of repeat surgery.

The implanted devices have saved countless lives by regulating heart rhythm but suffer the big drawback of running on batteries.

The new system instead taps power from the pumping heart.

Scientists in China have successfully tested the technology in pigs, which have a similar body design to humans. It employs the property that certain “piezoelectric” materials have of producing an electric current when stressed.

In this case the “generator” consists of a tiny elastic structure made up of layers of material which cause electricity to flow when bent by the expanding and contracting heart.

The pig tests showed the device capable of generating currents as high as 15 microamps, enough to power a commercial pacemaker.

The team, led by Bin Yang, from the National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology in Shanghai, wrote in the journal ACS Nano: “Here we report an integrated strategy for directly powering a modern and full-function cardiac pacemaker which can pace the porcine heart in vivo [in a living animal] by harvesting the natural energy of a heartbeat, without using any external energy storage element.”

The scientists added: “Translating this strategy into a clinical one will exempt patients from surgical replacement, or at least less frequently.”