The Early History of Cardiac Pacing

Rhythms of the heart: The history of electrophysiology and its current status in South Africa

“…The development of the lithium-iodide battery by Wilson Greatbatch in the early 1970s revolutionised pacemaker design and longevity. (24) Rapid technological advances over the past few decades have resulted in increased sophistication and reliability. Electrodes and leads, however, remain the weakest link which has led to the development of leadless pacemakers.…”

Tracking points on a pacing lead in a beating heart

“…Early in the development period researchers found out that a simple asynchronous pacemaker was stimulating the heart on the vulnerable potion of the T wave [22]. To overcome such situations researchers developed cardiac devices that could sense intrinsic heart beat and pace the heart in such a way that when stimulated, the electrical stimulus falls on the QRS portion of the heart cycle and not on the T wave.…”

“…To overcome such situations researchers developed cardiac devices that could sense intrinsic heart beat and pace the heart in such a way that when stimulated, the electrical stimulus falls on the QRS portion of the heart cycle and not on the T wave. By 1966 the pacing devices available in the market had the ability to inhibit the electrical stimulus if a spontaneous event is detected and trigger a stimulus if an appropriate event is not detected; these devices had a single ventricular lead [22,23].…”

“…The idea of atrial synchrony during pacing gained wide spread importance in the 1950's [22]. The main function of these devices was to sense the P wave and then accordingly stimulate the ventricle.…”

“…Most of these devices had two leadsatrial lead that was placed in the right atria and was used to detect the presence 21 of the P wave and send this information to the pulse generator, and a ventricular lead to stimulate the ventricle. In some cases two ventricular leads were implanted in case one of the leads failed to function [22,23].…”