Design of a microcontroller-based artificial pacemaker: An internal pacing device

Heart arrhythmia is a serious health problem that is commonplace among patients of different ages, from new born infants to the elderly. For such patients, an artificial pacemaker may be implanted for hear regulation by sending electrical signals to the patient's heart chambers. The advances in the electronics technology, has the potential to improve the artificial pacemakers in terms of price, energy consumption, and miniaturization to eliminate the leads. A microcontroller pacemaker, along with a PC-based programmer is proposed for bradycardia pacing. The algorithm is implemented in Arduino microcontrollers, which is programmed using PC and MATLAB. A ventricular signal with random or frequent lost beats is studied, and a pacing system is proposed for regulation of the simulated heart signal as in VVI mode. The experimental results show the ability of the system in detecting absence of the heartbeat in the expected times, and composing the required pacing pulses.