A recently published article in the Johns Hopkins Medicine News and a news story on MSNBC discusses work by the lab of Dr. Natalia Trayanova at ICM, in collaboration with other researches in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine at JHU. The research publication discussed in the Johns Hopkins Medicine news article is entitled “Reversible Cardiac Conduction Block and Defibrillation with High-Frequency Electric Field” by Tandri et al., and was published in the latest issue of Science Translational Medicine.

The research was aimed at finding “a kinder and gentler way to halt the rapid and potentially fatal irregular heart beat known as ventricular fibrillation”. The Hopkins researchers have found a way to stop a life-threatening arrhythmia by applying a high-frequency alternating current for about one-third of a second. The mechanisms by which the heart responds to the high-frequency alternating current were examined with a computer model developed by Trayanova lab. ICM graduate student Kelly Chang, a co-author on the Science Translational Medicine article, conducted all computer simulations.

To visit Hopkins Medicine News and read the full story, click here.
To read the MSNBC news story, visit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44704817/ns/health-heart_health/