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Pacemakers and Earphones Don't Mix
By James Beckerman, MD, FACC
WebMD Community Expert
Ride any subway or commuter train, jog any city street or park, or walk through any high school math class in America, and you will see it. The iPod. Regardless of where our economy is going, we have prioritized listening to music (and increasingly watching videos) on these increasingly multifaceted devices as we go about our daily lives. As mp3 players become ubiquitous among the public, some cardiovascular researchers from Harvard decided to investigate how these players, or more specifically, their earphones, might be having an impact on heart patients and their pacemakers.
You've probably heard some general recommendations about pacemakers. Let the TSA officer at the airport know about it before walking through the metal detector. Be careful when operating jackhammers. Don't put it in the microwave. Why all the concern?
It helps to think about why some people are recommended to have pacemakers. Pacemakers serve as the belt and suspenders for your heart rate. For individuals who have very slow heart rates or abnormalities in their heart's electrical system, pacemakers prevent the heart from beating too slowly. The pacemaker can be programmed to sense your native heart rate, and when nothing is sensed, the pacemaker responds by providing a friendly electrical reminder to your heart to keep on beating.
Herein lays the potential problem, with something called electromagnetic interference. Let's use an example to think about it. Suppose you are having a surgical procedure, which requires the use of electrocautery (which is an electric knife used to cut tissues and cauterize small blood vessels). The electrocautery knife can generate electrical activity which can be inappropriately sensed by your pacemaker as a heart beat. If your pacemaker is not reprogrammed appropriately for the surgery, this inappropriate sensing by the pacemaker prevents it from recognizing if your actual heart rate is actually too slow. This can make for a very awkward moment for the anesthesiologist... Fortunately, pacemakers can be temporarily reprogrammed for surgery, thus avoiding this problem.
But other sources for electromagnetic confusion are abundant in our society, from metal detectors to microwave ovens. Concerns about cell phones have prompted recommendations to avoid placing cell phones in your shirt or jacket pocket directly over a pacemaker. As we evolve technologically, so do our concerns.
This prompted researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to test eight models of earphones in sixty people with implanted devices. Approximately one fourth of the devices were impacted when the earphones were within one inch of the device (in a shirt pocket, for example). One pacemaker actually reset itself. The study was presented at this week's American Heart Association meeting. Dr. Alan Maisel, the study's leader, commented, "Headphones contain magnets, and some of these magnets are powerful...I certainly don't think people should overreact to this information, but it's smart to keep small electronics at least a few inches from implanted medical devices, and not let someone wearing headphones lean against your chest if you have one."
So enjoy your iPod or mp3 player, but keep your earphones where they were intended. In your ears.
Related Topics:
WebMD Community Expert
Ride any subway or commuter train, jog any city street or park, or walk through any high school math class in America, and you will see it. The iPod. Regardless of where our economy is going, we have prioritized listening to music (and increasingly watching videos) on these increasingly multifaceted devices as we go about our daily lives. As mp3 players become ubiquitous among the public, some cardiovascular researchers from Harvard decided to investigate how these players, or more specifically, their earphones, might be having an impact on heart patients and their pacemakers.
You've probably heard some general recommendations about pacemakers. Let the TSA officer at the airport know about it before walking through the metal detector. Be careful when operating jackhammers. Don't put it in the microwave. Why all the concern?
It helps to think about why some people are recommended to have pacemakers. Pacemakers serve as the belt and suspenders for your heart rate. For individuals who have very slow heart rates or abnormalities in their heart's electrical system, pacemakers prevent the heart from beating too slowly. The pacemaker can be programmed to sense your native heart rate, and when nothing is sensed, the pacemaker responds by providing a friendly electrical reminder to your heart to keep on beating.
Herein lays the potential problem, with something called electromagnetic interference. Let's use an example to think about it. Suppose you are having a surgical procedure, which requires the use of electrocautery (which is an electric knife used to cut tissues and cauterize small blood vessels). The electrocautery knife can generate electrical activity which can be inappropriately sensed by your pacemaker as a heart beat. If your pacemaker is not reprogrammed appropriately for the surgery, this inappropriate sensing by the pacemaker prevents it from recognizing if your actual heart rate is actually too slow. This can make for a very awkward moment for the anesthesiologist... Fortunately, pacemakers can be temporarily reprogrammed for surgery, thus avoiding this problem.
But other sources for electromagnetic confusion are abundant in our society, from metal detectors to microwave ovens. Concerns about cell phones have prompted recommendations to avoid placing cell phones in your shirt or jacket pocket directly over a pacemaker. As we evolve technologically, so do our concerns.
This prompted researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to test eight models of earphones in sixty people with implanted devices. Approximately one fourth of the devices were impacted when the earphones were within one inch of the device (in a shirt pocket, for example). One pacemaker actually reset itself. The study was presented at this week's American Heart Association meeting. Dr. Alan Maisel, the study's leader, commented, "Headphones contain magnets, and some of these magnets are powerful...I certainly don't think people should overreact to this information, but it's smart to keep small electronics at least a few inches from implanted medical devices, and not let someone wearing headphones lean against your chest if you have one."
So enjoy your iPod or mp3 player, but keep your earphones where they were intended. In your ears.
Related Topics:
Labels: heart disease, pacemaker
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