Medtronic’s Micra Pacemaker

Medtronic's Micra Pacemaker Survives Flight to Space:

This is an update to a recent story of ours on the first pacemaker in space. The Medtronic Micra is the smallest pacemaker currently available. It's so small that it's delivered via a catheter and attached to the endocardium of the heart,

where its internal battery paces the heart for years. It's certainly an incredible piece of technology, but a high school student had a wild idea of testing whether such a fine piece of electronics can withstand a flight into space.

Thankfully NASA has a sounding rocket program that flies small experiments to a high altitude but still below orbit, allowing all sorts of things to be tested. The Micra flew on a 36-foot long Terrier-Improved Orion rocket and reached 73 miles above Earth during a 13 minute flight.

Following the mission, the device was run through a regular series of tests all of which checked out. This is pretty good news, but more tests are still going to be conducted to see if there was any damage to the Micra during flight.

Here's a video from Medtronic about this historic flight:



Flashbacks: Medtronic's Tiny Micra Pacemaker Going on a Space Flight…; Medtronic Introduces Micra, World's Smallest Pacemaker…; Medtronic's Tiny Micra Leadless Pacemaker Approved in U.S…; Medtronic Micra, World's Smallest Pacemaker That Lives Inside Heart, Cleared in Europe…; World's Smallest Endocardial Pacemaker Getting Implanted in Initial Set of Patients…

Via: Medtronic…

from ! Medicine by Alexandros G. Sfakianakis via Αλέξανδρος Σφακιανάκης on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2svRQCJ
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