Smarter automatic defibrillator
Tuesday, March 19, 2019 - 08:40
in Health & Medicine
Automatic implantable cardiac defibrillators (AICDs) deliver shocks to the heart to correct arrythmias. They do so based on electrocardiogram data. Researchers have now shown that an AICD can be programmed to also measure stroke volume -- the amount of blood pumped out of the heart. The hope is that this will enable the AICDs to deliver shocks only when needed.