U.S. researchers think they have found out what causes a dangerous heart condition called tachycardia, a discovery that could help improve implantable pacemakers.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University were studying why implanted defibrillators sometimes trigger a rapid and dangerous heartbeat. Using heart cardiac cells in a lab and monitoring the effects of electrical jolts, the researchers said maverick electrical waves called multiarm spirals may be causing the accelerated heartbeats.
"These multiarm spiral waves can be electrically induced in sheets of cardiac cells, and we think that implanted devices could sometimes be setting off the same pattern in the heart," said lead author Nenad Bursac.
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