Pacemakers and iPods may not be ideal bedfellows, according to a study made by a 17-year-old high-school student. Jay Thaker tested the effect of the Apple player on 100 seniors, average age 77, who were fitted with the heart devices. When held just 2 inches from the patient’s chest for five to ten seconds, electrical interference was detected in half of the cases. One pacemaker stopped altogether, while others experienced interference even when the iPod was 18 inches away.
Thaker, a student at Okemos High School in Michigan, who co-authored the report with a long-time friend of his electrophysicist father, Dr Krit Jongnarangsin, concluded that iPod interference can lead doctors to misdiagnose heart function. “Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users,” said the doctor in response to why the connection had not been made before. “This needs to be studied more.”
iPods can make Pacemakers malfunction [CNN.com]
