Ipods & Pacemakers

Hi, I read on the web about Ipods affecting pacemakers, has anyone else read about it? & would like hear about other peoples views on this?, how true is it? also is there any recent reasearch on other things that we should be aware of?

3 Comments

huh?

by marisab - 2007-09-01 03:09:00

I have an Ipod and I listen to it a lot and my pacemaker is compltely fine, maybe its just a theory. They might be wrong, It sounds like something I heard about researchers thinking cellphones were dangerous to pacemakers, when they arent. It could be true but than again it could be wrong. My bet is its just a precuation until they know for sure. Anyways if they were dangerous Apple would have warning labels for people with pacemakers because they wouldn't want any law suits.

No Problem

by RickSt - 2007-09-01 04:09:17

I often have my MP3 player in my pocket when walking in the mornings. I've never had a problem with it. My PM is on my right side (I'm left handed) and I carry my MP3 in my left shirt pocket. I don't think I would want an Ipod or MP3 player directly over my PM.

Rick

F.Y.I.

by Stepford_Wife - 2007-09-01 05:09:01

This was posted a while back. It can't hurt to post it again, since the issue has resurfaced.

iPods can make pacemakers malfunction: study
Thu May 10, 2007 5:52PM EDT

By Debra Sherman

CHICAGO (Reuters) - iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to a study presented by a 17-year-old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday.

The study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for 5 to 10 seconds.

The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, which are made by Apple Inc.

In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused 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. The results were presented at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Denver.

Jay Thaker, lead author of the study and a student at Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan, concluded that iPod interference can lead physicians to misdiagnose actual heart function.

Thaker, whose father is an electrophysiologist and whose mother is a rheumatologist, said he asked his dad 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 said in a telephone interview.

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 said. For that reason, he said, it is unclear how often iPods cause misdiagnosis.

"This needs to be studied more," Jongnarangsin added.

Thaker said he is interested in doing a similar study about how implantable cardioverter defibrillators, known as ICDs, are affected by iPods.

~ Dominique ~

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