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Harvard Heart Letter | July 2008
Heart beat
Sweeter note sounded for iPod users
In
the summer of 2007, reporting on a study out of Michigan State
University, we cautioned musically minded readers with a pacemaker or
implanted cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) to keep their iPods or other
digital music players a foot or two away from the heart because they
might interfere with the heart device. Newer work suggests that
probably isnt necessary.
The Michigan State study
surprised Dr. Gregory Webster and his colleagues at Harvard-affiliated
Childrens Hospital in Boston, who hadnt run across a case of an iPod
interfering with a pacemaker or an ICD in any of their patients. So
they tested iPods and three other digital music players on 51 of their
patients with a pacemaker or ICD. Even when the music player was placed
directly on the chest, it had no effect on the pacemaker or ICD, as
shown by tracings on an electrocardiogram. But the music players did interfere with communication between the heart device and the tool used to program or collect information from it.
Based
on their work, the researchers downplayed the possible pacemaker-ICD
hazard from digital music players. But since the study was small and
each test lasted for only a short time, they suggest that it makes
sense to keep a digital music player at least six inches from a
pacemaker or ICD, especially when the heart device is being checked.
Better yet, turning off the music and putting the player away when the
heart device is being tested might improve doctor-patient communication
all around.
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