iPods can cause implantable cardiac pacemakers to malfunction, according to a study presented at a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday.
The study tested the effect of placing the portable device near the chest of 100 patients with an average age of 76 – all were fitted with pacemakers. Technicians monitored information from an electrocardiogram and from the pacemaker itself, via a telemetry screen, during the trials.
Some form of interference was detected half of the time when an iPod was held 5 centimetres from the patient's chest for between 5 and 10 seconds. And, in a few cases, interference was detected when a device was 45 cm from the chest. In some cases the devices appeared to interfere with the pacemaker's telemetry link and in others with its reading of the heart's pacing.
The study was held at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University and the results were presented at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Denver.
The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, but it did incorporate both hard-drive-based and flash-memory-based iPods.
Jay Thaker, lead author of the study is a 17-year-old high school student at Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan. Thaker asked his father, who is an electrophysiologist, about a potential interaction between pacemakers and iPods.
"We looked online but didn't see anything. Then, one of his patients asked him if there would be a problem, so (my father) put me in touch with Dr Krit (Jongnarangsin)," Thaker says.
Jongnarangsin, a long-time friend of Thaker's father, is the senior author of the study and an assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan.
"Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," Jongnarangsin says, adding that, for this reason, it is unclear how often iPods may cause misreadings of heart rates. "This needs to be studied more," Jongnarangsin adds.
Thaker says he is interested in doing a similar study about how another type of implantable device, called a cardioverter defibrillator (ICDs), may be affected by iPods.
iPod manufacturer Apple did not return requests for comment by time of posting.
By C Davies
Mon Nov 26 22:48:48 GMT 2007
I have also been wondering whether I should be using my wireless laptop near my pacemaker. Then there is GPS navigation? We are not all pensioners. I was only 50 when my sino atrial node was completely knocked out during aortic heart valve surgery.All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
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