Apple’s portable music player interfered with 30% of patients tested in the study, reseacrhers said, although none of the instances of interference were life-threatening.
When held two inches from the patients’ chests for five to 10 seconds, iPods interfered with telemetry equipment monitoring the heart, caused implantable pacemakers to misread the heart’s pacing, and, in one case, caused the device to stop functioning.
The study tested iPods on 83 patients at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute and Michigan State University with dual chamber and single chamber pacemakers. Telemetry interference was found in 29% of patients, over sensing (pacemakers misreading the heart’s function) in 20%, and pacemaker inhibition (pacemaker stopped functioning) in one patient. In some cases, interference was detected even when iPods were held as far as 18 inches from the chest.
For people depending on these pacing devices, iPod interference can lead physicians to misdiagnose the actual heart function, said Jay Thaker, lead author and a high school senior at Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan, who worked with the university team. Our findings are disconcerting because although the typical pacemaker patient may not be an iPod user, they are often in close contact with grandchildren and other young people who are avid users.
