ipods Can Cause Interference In Pacemakers
An apple a day will keep the doctor away. Apparently that is not a true statement for patients that have pacemakers. It seems that ipods could serve as interference in the electrical currents of pacemakers.
The study revealed that three different types of interference can occur between an iPod and a pacemaker. Two types, oversensing (spurious sensing of atrial/ventricular events) and telemetry interference, were the most persistent and were measured in more than 50 percent of the patients. The third, most serious type of interference — pacemaker inhibition, or a failure to pace the heart when pacing was expected — occurred in just 1.2 percent of the patients.
The theory behind this research was presented by a 17 year old Michigan student this past Thursday at the 2007 annual meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society in Denver, Colorado.
The demographics of the researched subjects were a bit older than the average ipod user, but the results do warrant further investigation. If the pacers impulse has interference and the patient does not have an impulse of their own, they could be in grave danger!
In the same breath, ipod’s are being used in the training of cardiologists…
Medical students can download the recordings to their iPods and use them to practice “cardiac auscultation,” or listening to the heart through a stethoscope. Dr. Barrett has found that when physicians and students practice first with the recordings, their ability to identify specific heart murmurs is twice as good.
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POSTED IN: Hearty Blogging, Hearty Research, Hearty Tips
1 opinion for ipods Can Cause Interference In Pacemakers
Paula
Jul 23, 2008 at 5:22 pm
While this is an interesting theory you do not mention what conditions presented the problems. Were the ipods being worn by the subjects being tested or were the subjects in the vacinity of the ipod being played. Are the all the conditions being reported resolved once the ipods are removed from the area of the subjects with the pacemakers?
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