James Delahunty
13 May 2007 18:54
A study presented by a 17 year old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday showed proof that Apple Inc.'s iPod player can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart. Many other types of MP3 players or portable devices could also have the same effect, but this study only covered iPods.
One hundred patients, whose mean age was 77, were tested as part of the study. Results showed that electrical interference was detected half of the time when the device was held about 2 inches away from the patient's chest for a duration of just 5 to 10 seconds. In some cases, interference was detected at distances up to 18 inches.
Such interference causes the device to misread the heart's pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether. 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.
Jay Thaker, lead author of the study, concluded that the interference can lead to physicians misdiagnosing actual heart function. Thaker was put in touch with Dr. Krit (Jongnarangsin), after asking his father, who is an electrophysiologist, about a potential interaction between pacemakers and iPods.
"Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," Jongnarangsin said. For that reason, he said, it is unclear how often iPods cause misdiagnoses. He said that this issue needs further study.
Source:
Reuters