digital signals

im trying to find out if anyone has ever heard of digital signals penetrating pacemaker leads and having adverse affects on a heart

3 Comments

Digial Signals

by SMITTY - 2009-06-02 09:06:51

Hi Pokey1,

No I've never heard of such and my uneducated opinion is it cannot happen. It takes an electrical impulse to have an effect on your heart. The heart can get this from its natural pacemaker or from the manmade pacemaker. The digital signal cannot supply this electrical impulse. Also, I see no way a digital signal can have an effect on your pacemaker and do crazy things since it takes and electromagnetic field (such as that generated by a magnet) to have an effect on your pacemaker.

Anyway if it were possible, what about all the people in this old world that do not have pacemakers, yet probably come in contact with digital signals every day. If such signal could have an effect on the hearts people with pacemakers, then it could also play havoc with the hearts of people that do not have a pacemaker.

But like I said at the beginning of this, mine is an uneducated opinion, so we shall now see if I'm totally off base on this.

Smitty

ditto what Smitty said

by Tracey_E - 2009-06-02 10:06:09

I'm no expert but I really don't think that's possible. Most pm's are shielded from mild interferences and I've never heard of a lead getting interference. They're well insulated.

Techie Answer

by ElectricFrank - 2009-06-03 12:06:47

Digital or analog are just ways of encoding information in a signal. It is the transmitter that sends this signal through the air that has enough power to potentially interfere with the pacemaker. So the common digital devices like WiFi or cell phones that are found in the home are no problem because their power level is low. Standing in front of an airport radar antenna could cause problems whether digital or analog.

So I just gave a long techie answer to the simple ones by Smitty and Tracey.

frank

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