Medtronic last month declared that it had designed and commenced implanting the smallest cardiac pacemaker in the world in a clinical trial. The Micra Transcatheter Pacing System (TPS) is placed, through the femoral vein, inside of the heart where it holds onto endocardial tissue and offers speeding signals via its electrode tip.
Since the insertion of the Micra TPS as well as the new St. Jude Medical’s CE Marked Nanostim needs neither leads nor conventional surgery that led to issues in the past, the expectation is that the new range of pacemakers will offer a much elevated level of security. In addition to this, not having to place a stiff gadget implanted right under the skin will surely enhance patient satisfaction and comfort.
The Medtronic Micra TPS is the tinniest pacemaker presently available. It is so small that it is placed with the help of a catheter and joined to the heart to the endocardium, where its interior battery speeds the heart for decades. It is surely a hard-to-believe piece of tech, but a high school student had an untamed thought of testing whether such a superior piece of technology can survive a flight in the outer space.
After the declaration of the pacemaker, the journey started. The Micra TPS was initially approved in the U.S. People all over the country were happy and out of dilemma owing to the approval of the Micra TPS. Eventually, the leadless pacemaker that lives inside the heart was also approved in Europe. So now, individuals suffering from heart diseases in Europe had a better choice of pacemakers due to the approval of this small device.
Fortunately, NASA has a sounding rocket mission that takes off small tests to a high elevation but is still under the orbit, permitting all types of things to be experimented. The Micra reached 73 Miles above Earth and flew on a 36 Feet long Orion Terrier-Improved rocket during a 13-Minute flight.
Following the program, the gadget was run via a usual sequence of experiments all of which passed out. This is quite good news, but more experiments are still going to be performed to witness if there was any harm during flight to the Micra.
Having said this, the company has confirmed that some more tests will be conducted on the device so that we get aware of its true potential. For now, celebrate the current win of the pacemaker surviving in outer space.
