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When a widely reported study last May concluded that electronic noise from iPods can make cardiac pacemakers malfunction, cardiac electrophysiologists at Children's were skeptical. "Many of our pacemaker patients have iPods and other digital music players, and we've never seen a problem," says Charles Berul, MD, director of the Pacemaker Service.
So Dr. Berul, cardiac fellow Gregory Webster, MD, and colleagues studied 51
of their own patients, placing each of four
digital music players directly over the
pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. None of the music players affected device function, and ECGs
were unchanged in 255 separate tests. Players sometimes interfered with
communications between the cardiac device and the programmer used to check and recalibrate it, but this interference stopped when the player was moved away.
Though reassured, doctors Berul and Webster acknowledge that their testing
was short-term and suggest patients keep iPods and other MP3 players at least six inches away from their cardiac device. (Heart Rhythm, April 2008)
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