A pacemaker is a small, battery-operated electronic device, which is inserted under the skin to help the heart to beat regularly and at an appropri-ate rate. The purpose of an artificial pacemaker is to stimulate the heart when either the heart's natural pacemaker is not fast enough or if there are blocks in the heart's electrical conduction system, preventing the propagation of electrical impulses from the natural pacemaker to the ventricles.
The sinus node (sinoatrial node), (1.5 cm long, 3mm wide muscle), situated on the right wall of the right atrium (auricle) where cadiac impulse is initiated. It is known as the natural pacemaker of mammalian heart,
A pacemaker generally has two parts, the generator and the leads. The generator contains the battery and the information to regulate the heartbeat. The leads are wires that go from the generator through a large vein to the heart, where the wires are anchored. The leads send the electrical impulse to the heart to tell it to beat. Most pacemakers run on lithium batteries. The battery can last for 7-8 years. It will be routinely monitored by health care professional and replaced when necessary. The generators have become smaller over the years and often weigh less than 30 grams.
To assist in the diagnaosis of diseases and disorders and to monitor therapy, a wide range of clinical tests has been developed. The demand for investigations is growing with the growing population and diseases. To get fast results on a large number of specimens, it is becoming inevitable to replace manual methods. This could be done by autoanalysers. With help of autoanalysers an increased work load can be processed rapidly and with reproducible results. To maintain the quailty of results, standards (samples of Known values) will be run along with every batch of test samples.
1. Accuracy is more when compared with manual method.
2. Large number of samples may be processed in minimal time.
3. Two or more assays may be performed simultaneously.
4. Calculations are not required.
1. It is impractical for small number of specimens.
2. Instruments may fail occasionally.
3. Additional training of the staff about the working, maintenance and potential problems of the machine is needed.
4. They are expensive.
Autoanalyser can be used to estimate parameters such as glucose, protein, albumin, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), sodium, potassium, chlorine, transaminase, lactic dehydrogenase, bilirubin, inorganic phosphate, calcium, cholesterol, uric acid, phosphatases and bicarbonate.