A temperature-sensitive cardiac pacemaker

An artificial cardiac pacemaker which is sensitive to the temperature of blood in the right atrium has been fabricated. For a temperature change of 20 degrees C the circuit achieves 90% of its final response within a period of 18 s. In the authors' opinion this is satisfactory since changes in blood temperature are generally small. Cardiac output in dogs rose from 2.37 +/- 0.65 to 4.54 +/- 1.15 l/min when the rate was increased from 202.6 beats/min(b.p.m.) at 37.6 degrees C to 231.6 b.p.m. at 41 degrees C. Cardiac output was found, from statistical observation, to be improved at temperatures over 39.6 degrees C.