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This collection of papers from Nature Research and Reviews journals displays recent developments in materials science, electronics and biology of bioelectronic devices developed to communicate with different human tissues and organs. By showcasing new devices and approaches for engineering bioelectronic interfaces, it demonstrates the progress in understanding and designing electronic device-human interactions, specifically in the context of the cardiovascular system, nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, skin and musculoskeletal system.
The collection is curated by the Bioengineering and Biomaterials editorial community and published simultaneously to the beginning of the Nature Conference on 2D Flexible Electronics.
Nature Conference on Flexible Electronics - Visions of a Flexible Future
October 12-14, 2018
Jin Jiang International Hotel, Xi'an, China
This Nature conference on the theme of flexible electronics will set its sights firmly on the future, by exploring how flexible electronics will impact society by helping to tackle challenges in areas such as health, energy, ubiquitous electronics and the "Internet of Things".
Integrating multifunctional electronics with engineered cardiac patches enables the recording of cellular electrical activities, and on-demand provision of electrical stimulation and release of drugs.
Heart-on-a-chip devices with integrated strain gauges for direct readout of tissue contractile strength allow for multiplexed drug-dose experiments and studies of functional maturation of cardiac tissue.
A highly conductive, biocompatible and stretchable nanocomposite based on ultralong gold-coated silver nanowires allows for the realization of wearable and implantable bioelectronics.
Three-dimensional tissue-scaffold-mimicking nanoelectronics are used to map conduction pathways during cardiac tissue development, record action potential dynamics in disease and pharmacological models, and actively control action potential propagation.
An ultrasonic and stretchable device conformal to the skin that captures blood pressure waveforms at deeply embedded arterial and venous sites enables the continuous monitoring of cardiovascular events.
In this Review, Yacoub and McLeod summarize the rationale for monitoring patients with heart failure or pulmonary arterial hypertension to detect haemodynamic changes that predict the deterioration from subclinical to overt disease, the transition from noninvasive to implantable devices and the current and anticipated clinical use of these devices.
In this Review, the authors discuss the epidemiology, diagnosis and optimal management of resistant hypertension. They highlight the limitations of clinical trials of device-based therapies conducted to date and propose directions for future research.
Conduction system disorders lead to slow heart rates that are insufficient to support the circulation, necessitating implantation of electronic pacemakers. Current pacemakers, although effective, have limitations including lead malfunction, lack of autonomic responsiveness, and device-related infections. In this Review, Marbán and colleagues discuss next-generation electronic devices designed to address current limitations, as well as biological pacemakers as alternatives to implantable hardware.
Cardiac implanted electronic devices (CIEDs) frequently detect subclinical atrial high-rate episodes (AHREs), but the relevance and appropriate clinical response to these episodes is uncertain. In this Review, Freedman and colleagues discuss the relationship between AHREs, atrial fibrillation, and risk of stroke, and propose a management algorithm for patients with CIED-detected AHREs.