Study: iPods able to crash pacemakers

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By Stevie Smith May 11, 2007, 15:10 GMT

There's no denying the technological impact of Apple's iconic iPod and its subsequent dominance in the digital music marketplace, and, considering its prolific rise and ongoing consumer dominance, the occasional bug, fault, and glitch are perhaps tolerable in an otherwise superb piece of kit. However, one of this week's news stories would suggest that loving your iPod and duly keeping it close to your heart might be bad for your health, especially if you're fitted with a pacemaker.More pointedly, according to a study carried out by Jay Thaker, a 17-year-old high school student, which was presented to a selection of heart specialists yesterday, close proximity to an iPod can trigger monitoring malfunctions in cardiac pacemakers due to electromagnetic interference.Thaker, lead author on the heart-related study and a student at Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan, revealed that iPod units positioned a mere 2 inches from the chests of patients fitted with a pacemaker caused electrical interference in 50 percent of them. Even when located around 18 inches from a patient's chest electrical interference was registered as disrupting the pacemaker's telemetry equipment, leading the implanted device to misinterpret the pace of the heart. In one test the pacemaker ceased to function completely.The study was conducted at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University across 100 patients with an average age of 77, all equipped with implanted pacemaker devices. Thaker’s somewhat worrying results (which only focused on the iPod, and not the effects of other digital portable music players), were presented on Thursday at the annual meeting off the Heart Rhythm Society in Denver, Colorado.While the test results are worth noting, the study's senior author, Dr. Krit Jongnarangsin (who is also an assistant professor at the University of Michigan's Division of Cardiovascular Medicine) conceded that the patient and age demographic generally associated with iPod use doesn't coincide with the related demographic of those fitted with pacemakers, and therefore actual figures connected to possible misdiagnosis are hard to amass."Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," said Jongnarangsin in a Reuters report. "This needs to be studied more."Young Mr. Thaker, whose mother and father happen to be a rheumatologist and electrophysiologist respectively, is now aiming to conduct a similar test that will assess the effects of iPod use in location to implanted cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs).

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ConcernedMay 11th, 2007 - 15:44:05

'In one test the pacemaker ceased to function completely.' Ummmm.... what, ah, happened that patient???!!!

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stockpagerMay 11th, 2007 - 16:02:51

What about cell phones?

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MR.xMay 11th, 2007 - 16:04:14

Cool way to speed up your inheritance?
Just kidding lol

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RembrantMay 11th, 2007 - 16:07:17

Pace makers don't keep the heart beating. They give the heart a little zap when it gets out of rythm. That's an over simplification but it's the general idea. It will be interesting to see the results of the follow up studies. The age of the people studied doesn't matter. What happens when they hug their grandchildren.

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Reply to ConcernedMay 11th, 2007 - 16:07:51

Obviously they didn't test with people, they used functioning pacemakers OUTSIDE of the body.

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Scott-MassachusettsMay 11th, 2007 - 16:08:31

I hope this isnt just another apple bash cause ... any electrical device has the same effect.. from the alarm clock next to your bed ( which can cause brain tumors- maybe) to your remot control to change the channels so get off the ipod and worry about more important things like where the fork went Im missing the pie

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JayMay 11th, 2007 - 16:28:30

I disagree with the title of this article. While I agree an iPod can disrupt a Pacemaker I seriously doubt that in one study, using just one iPod and one Pacemaker warrants enough merit to say **iPods** caused **Pacemakers** to malfunction. That all the public needs, the media to cause an uproar of a study that in my opinion is non conclusive.

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PappyMay 11th, 2007 - 16:52:32

George-
Don't give Dick that ipod!

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meMay 11th, 2007 - 17:15:23

It wasn't Just 1 Ipod and Just 1 pacemaker. REad the article more carefully. Half of the pacemakers had some kind of interference due to the ipod. Also this study wasnt done outside the patients bodies - it clearly says that patients who had an average age of 77 were tested.

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Full of ItMay 11th, 2007 - 17:18:14

Regarding the comments of 'Reply to Concerned' and 'Jay': NEVER teach someone to write that cannot read. The rest of us have to try to make sense of their inane misunderstandings. Read carefully, write seldom.

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