A blog about what is new (and old) in the world of active implantable medical devices

Category Archives: Bradycardia

Implantable devices for the treatment of bradycardia (pacemakers)

One for History Buffs: Pacemaker Made in Brasil

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, CCC del Uruguay, CCC Medical, Museum

Implantable Pacemaker Made in Brasil. www.implantable-device.com David Prutchi Ph.D.

My friend Daniel Villamil from CCC Medical in Uruguay sent me these pictures of a very unique device in his colection.  It is a late-1960s/early 1970s pacemaker made in Sao Paulo, Brasil.

UPDATE Oct 3, 2012:

CCC’s CEO Julio Arzuaga recalled that this pacemaker was manufactured in the early 1960s by the Instituto de Cardiologia Dante Pazzanese in Sao Paulo, Brasil.  The physicians leading the pacemaker team were Dr. Decio Kormann and Dr. Adib Jatene.

Dr. Orestes Fiandra used to implant these Brasilian pacemakers in Uruguay.  However, they were not very reliable.  For this reason, and with help from Drs. Kormann and Jatene, Dr. Fiandra started CCC del Uruguay as a more industrial environment for the production of pacemakers.

Implantable Pacemaker Made in Brasil. www.implantable-device.com David Prutchi Ph.D.

St. Jude Starts Trial of Accent MRI Pacemaker and Tendril MRI Lead

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, MRI-safe, St. Jude Medical
St Jude's ACCENT MRI MRI-compatible pacemaker. Report by David Prutchi PhD

Image Credit: St. Jude Medical

Today St. Jude announced the first implant in its Accent MRI(R) Pacemaker and Tendril MRI(R) Lead IDE Study (MRI Study). The ultimate goal of the study is to determine if patients with these devices can safely undergo full-body, high resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans to better accommodate their medical needs. The investigational Accent MRI Pacemaker system from St. Jude Medical offers an advanced pacing platform that provides wireless telemetry and algorithms to help address individual patient conditions.

Continue reading→

Digikon’s History

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, Digikon, History, Museum

Digikon model LD451 Ventricular Inhibited Pulse GeneratorIn response to my post “A Challenge to History Buffs:  Who Was Digikon?“, Paolo Pagani sent me the following message:

“Digikon was in the years 1977-1985 the brand name product in Italy by Biotec Biomedical Technologies of Bologna – ITALY.

Pacemakers were a Digikon O.E.M. production for the trading company of Milan Italy KONTRON already a distributor in Italy of Medtronic.

Biotec developed the first pacemaker VVIR based on physiological changes in thoracic impedance due to respiration. (Biotec RDP-3)

Biotec-Bologna was acquired by Medtronic in August 1985.”

Thank you Paolo!

 

iPacemaker Implantable Pacemaker/ICD Database for the iPhone

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, Cardioversion/Defibrillation, Heart Failure (CHF), News, Tachycardia
iPacemaker implantable pacemaker and ICD database for the iPhone

Image Credit: iPacemaker

My friend and colleague Dr. Irit Yaniv alerted me to this iPhone app that was just released.  It is an implantable pacemaker and defibrillator database that, according to its author, displays up to 70 parameters for each model, includes battery and longevity data, and links directly to product manuals. Continue reading→

The Australian Pacemaker: Telectronics (1965-1995)

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, History, Museum, St. Jude Medical, Telectronics (1965-1995)

Telectronics model 150B VVI pacemaker photographed by David Prutchi, Ph.D. www.implantable-device.comIn 1965, Australian medical device pioneer Noel Gray established Telectronics – Australia’s first manufacturing facility for producing pacemakers that were designed in-house.  Telectronics was an innovative developer, achieving some major successes in the early cardiac pacing field, for example, Telectronics’ leads allowed narrowing the pacing pulse to its current nominal of 0.5 milliseconds; encapsulating the pacemaker in titanium instead of epoxy; using a microplasma weld to join the two halves of the pacemaker capsule; creating one of the first rate-responsive ‘demand’ pacemakers; and isolating the pacemaker’s battery in a separate compartment to deal with the problem of leaking mercury-zinc batteries. Continue reading→

Elema-Schoenander and the Very First Human Implants of a Pacemaker in Sweden (1958) and Uruguay (1960)

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, CCC del Uruguay, Elema-Schonander (-1959), History, Museum, Pacesetter, Siemens-Elema (1959-1994), St. Jude Medical

First pacemaker to be implanted in a human patient (1958)

This is a picture of the first pacemaker to be implanted in a human patient.  It was developed by Dr. Rune Elmqvist (1906–1996), a physician by training, but working for the Swedish company Elema-Schonander as an engineer.   Dr. Elmqvist  developed the device in cooperation of Åke Senning, senior physician and cardiac surgeon at the Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Sweden. Continue reading→

Intermedics’ First Pacemakers (Mid 1970s)

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, History, Intermedics (1974-1999), Museum

Intermedics InterLith Pacemakers from the mid-1970s

In 1973, former Medtronic sales representative Albert Beutel founded Intermedics in Freeport, TX.  The first product was a small, mercury-cell-powered pacemaker.  In 1974 Intermedics introduced a lithium-powered version, and in 1976 it introduced InterLith which was hermetically sealed, and weighed just 65 grams.  At the time, InterLith’s size was a breakthrough, and became a very popular device, solidifying Intermedics’ position in the industry.

 

Original Datasheet for Arco’s Nuclear Pacemakers (ca. 1974)

Posted on by Posted in Arco Medical (1969-1980), Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, History, Museum, Nuclear Batteries

Original Arco Medical datasheet for NU5 plutonium-powered nuclear pacemaker

Some time ago, my friend and colleague Paul Spehr gave me a copy of Arco Medical’s product catalog.  I scanned the original datasheets for Arco Medical’s nuclear fixed-rate and demand pacemakers models NU-5 and NU-6 and posted them here in pdf format: Arco_Nuclear_Datasheets

Click here for a color picture and more information on Arco Medical’s nuclear pacemakers.

 

American Optical Cardio-Care Demand Pacemaker (1968)

Posted on by Posted in American Optical (1965-1975), Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, History, Museum

American Optical Cardio-Care Implantable Demand Pacemaker (1968)

Barouh Berkovits at American Optical Co of Boston, MA designed the first “Demand Pacemaker” – what we now know as a VVI pacemaker. The Cardio-Care Demand Pacemaker, introduced in 1968, was American Optical’s first implantable device.

From Kirk Jeffrey’s Machines in our Hearts(2001):

“Berkovits in 1963 designed a sensing capability into the pacemaker. His invention behaved exactly like an asynchronous pacer until it detected a naturally occurring R wave, the indication of a ventricular contraction. This event would reset the timing circuit of the pacemaker, and the countdown to the next stimulus would begin anew. Thus the pacer stimulated the heart only when the ventricles failed to contract. It worked only ‘‘on demand.’’ As an added benefit, noncompetitive pacing extended the life of the battery. Continue reading→

A Challenge to History Buffs: Who Was Digikon?

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, Digikon, History, Museum

Digikon model LD451 Ventricular Inhibited Pulse Generator

I took this picture a very long time ago at the office of one of my implanter friends in Europe.  Ever since then, I’ve tried to find out about “Digikon,” but have had no luck so far.  All that I have been able to find from the St. Jude legacy device database is that Digikon had produced a number of pacemaker models, including the one shown in this picture.

Do you know anything about Digikon?  Please let me know!

Cook Pacemaker’s Sensor Kelvin 504 Central-Venous-Temperature-Sensing Pacemaker (ca. 1992)

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, Cook Pacemaker, History, Museum

Cook Pacemakers Sensor Kelvin Model 504 central-venous-temperature-sensing rate-responsive pacemaker

In 1983, Bill Cook and Dr. Neal Fearnot began to work under the Cook Pacemaker Company in Leechburg, PA on developing the technology developed by Dr. Fearnot at Purdue University into an improved prototype for a temperature-based exercise responsive pacemaker that was released in 1988 as the Kelvin Sensor rate-responsive pacemaker.  One of the first CVT rate-adaptive pacemakers was the Cook Model Kelvin 500 series. Continue reading→

Intermedics’ Circadia Central Venous Temperature-Sensing Pacemaker (ca. 1993)

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, History, Intermedics (1974-1999), Museum

Intermedics Circadia central-venous-temperature-sensing rate-responsive pacemaker

Back side of Intermedics Circadia pacemaker. Labeling shows special connector for temperature-sensing lead.

The Circadia pacemaker was one of the very few devices that had a lead-borne thermistor to measure cental venous temperature (CVT) as a sensor for rate-response.

A unique feature of this pacemaker was an iridium-oxide (IrOx)-coated button welded to the can.  It was believed that this button would improve unipolar IEGM sensing and reduce unipolar pacing thresholds (it didn’t). Continue reading→

Cook’s Sensor Kelvin and Intermedics’ Circadia Temperature-Sensing Rate-Responsive Pacemakers

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, Cook Pacemaker, History, Intermedics (1974-1999), Museum

 

Cook Pacemaker's Kelvin and Intermedics' Circadia central venous temperature-controlled rate-responsive pacemakersOne of the indicators of metabolic demand that has been used for controlling the rate of pacemakers is central venous blood temperature (CVT).

In 1983, Bill Cook and Dr. Neal Fearnot began to work under the Cook Pacemaker Company on developing the technology developed by Dr. Fearnot at Purdue University into an improved prototype for a temperature-based exercise responsive pacemaker that was released in 1988 as the Kelvin Sensor rate-responsive pacemaker.  One of the first CVT rate-adaptive pacemakers was the Cook Model Kelvin 500 series.

Another one of the first CVT rate-adaptive pacemakers was the Intermedics Nova MR, which differs from the Kelvin 500 series in that its pacing algorithm had a more dynamic HR response. Continue reading→

Medcor Corporation’s Pacemakers (ca. 1975)

Posted on by Posted in Bradycardia, Cardiac Pacing, Daig, History, Medcor (1971-1980), Museum, St. Jude Medical

Medcor Corporation pacemaker ca. 1975Medcor was established in Hollywood, FL in 1969, and began developing pacemakers, lead and accessories in 1971.  By 1975 it had a series of lithium-powered pacemaker in the market, but they never became popular with physicians.

On July 1980, Daig Corporation of Minnetonka, MN acquired Medcor with the expectation that Medcor pacemaker technology could be profitably marketed.

Daig had hoped to market a new line of Medcor pacemakers, but significant electronic malfunctions were encountered which foreclosed further development Medcor’s pacemaker product line. As a result of malfunctions in the first pacemaker line, FDA approval was withheld on a second Medcor line of pacemakers due to similarities in product design.

In 1981, amidst a very serious financial condition, Daig closed its doors.  The remaining assets were acquired by Daig’s largest customer – Pacesetter (now part of St. Jude Medical).

UPDATE, May 20, 2013: 

Mark Christensen – who worked at Daig Corporation from 1980 to 1986 – sent me a kind note with some additional information:  “As you note in your comments on Medcor, it was purchased by Daig in 1980 but remained as a separate business. Daig’s financial crisis in 1981 caused Daig to go into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and Medcor went to Chapter 7 – liquidation and was sold at auction in late 1981. No pacemaker company bought any of the assets. Daig reorganized, diversified into EP catheters and was bought by St Jude Medical in 1996 (15 years later).”   Thanks Mark!