Here's a new science development for you all. Scientists have just recently created a single catheter that does the work of the usual two used to treat arrhythmia. Arrhythmia is the fancy word for an irregular heartbeat. Usually cardiologists will put in a catheter that maps out the heart and finds the source of the irregularity. The second catheter then gets directed to the location (through the use of the electrode on the end) and kills the aberrant cells.
This new catheter is a "flexible meshwork of linked sensors and electrodes onto a conventional endocardial balloon catheter. It looks like this:
Those sensors (that you can see on the picture) measure various things such as temperature or electrical activity and then use the data to lock onto the aberrant cells. Then, just like before, the cells are destroyed. The other neat thing about this catheter is that it will inflate when it is inserted in order to open up blood vessels and then it will deflate once the source of arrhythmia is gone.
Pretty neat, huh? Check it out here: http://www.gizmag.com/balloon-catheter-with-stretchable-electronics/18098/
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