iPods Bad for Pacemakers
A high school student with a desire to pursue a medical career has produced an interesting study in which it was determined that when an iPod is placed in close proximity to a pacemaker, it can cause the pacemaker to malfunction.
It has long been known that electrical devices, such as microwave ovens, cell phones, and other electronic appliances, can cause pacemaker malfunction. Medical providers typically recommend to pacemaker patients that they not place hand held electronic devices directly over the pacemaker, and that they not stand within 2-3 inches of appliances such as a microwave oven.
Jay Thaker, a Michigan high school student reported that his study involved holding an iPod within two inches of a the pacemaker in 83 patients for a range of 5-10 seconds. His results indicated that “telemetry interference” occurred in 29% of the study participants, and “over sensing” occurred in another 20% of the patients.
Telemetry interference could cause a pacemaker to record what appears to be an abnormal heart rhythm when one doesn’t really exist. This is important because the history of heart rhythm disturbances is stored in the pacemaker for the medical provider to read at some future date; this interference could cause the provider to treat an abnormal rhythm that didn’t really occur, but seemed to be present on the recorded data.
Read the rest of this important story here
iPod, pacemaker
October 11th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
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