Coronary angioplasty: an alternative to bypass surgery
Article Abstract:
A number of new intra-coronary techniques and hardware are being developed to improve the diagnostic and clinical applications of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). PTCA is the use of a balloon dilation catheter to enlarge the lumen of an obstructed vessel. The technology has several limitations including: usefulness for only a limited number of patients with single, concentric, non-calcified lesions in certain locations; risk of damage to the arterial wall, possibly resulting in coronary occlusion and-or myocardial infarction; and a 30 percent recurrence within 6 months of the obstruction. New diagnostic techniques being applied to PTCA include angioscopy and electromagnetic flow probes. New therapeutic techniques include improved balloon catheters and guidewires, intra-coronary stenting devices, microsurgical catheters, and laser catheters.
Publication Name: Proceedings of the IEEE
Subject: Electronics
ISSN: 0018-9219
Year: 1988
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Implantable defibrillator with high-output pacing function after defibrillation
Article Abstract:
A prototype, battery-type, implantable automatic defibrillator is developed that acts as a high-output, ventricular-demand pacemaker for a short period of time after defibrillation. The device is targeted at persons with continual high risk of ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia. The high-output pacing function is included because of a higher level stimulation needed after a fibrillation-defibrillation incident. The device also includes an electret condenser-microphone that picks up pressure variations in the right ventricle for heartbeat rate sensing, a small pulse generator based on a programmable uni-junction transistor, a defibrillation output capacitor to supply energy for the pacing period, and a pacing catheter electrode. Details of the prototype development and testing are described.
Publication Name: Proceedings of the IEEE
Subject: Electronics
ISSN: 0018-9219
Year: 1988
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Real-time simulation for space station. Shuttle orbit flight control design lessons: direction for space station
- Abstracts: Power electronic circuit topology. Realization of multiplierless coherent detection scheme in digital domain
- Abstracts: Memory systems for highly parallel computers. Limits of nano-gate fabrication
- Abstracts: Applied neural control in the 1990s. Microwave diversity imaging and automated target identification based on models of neural networks
- Abstracts: Recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging. Electrical stimulation of excitable cells--a model approach