Smartphones and pacemakers don't mix, and could produce a painful jolt when they come into contact, scientists said this week.
"Pacemakers can mistakenly detect electromagnetic interference (EMI) from smartphones as a cardiac signal, causing them to briefly stop working," Dr. Carsten Lennerz, resident in the Clinic for Heart and Circulatory Diseases at the German Heart Centre,
reported at a medical conference this week.
"This leads to a pause in the cardiac rhythm of the pacing-dependent patient and may result in syncope. For implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) the external signal mimics a life threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmia, leading the ICD to deliver a painful shock."
Speaking at a joint meeting of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in Milan, Italy, Lennerz said that he and his team set out to re-test the relationship between smartphones and pacemakers ten years after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its recommended safety distance of 5 to 8 inches between the devices.
Roughly a decade ago, smartphones had just been introduced, so the FDA recommendation was due for an update, he said.
Thus, Lennerz and his team created a safe testing environment to expose 308 patients (147 pacemakers and 161 ICDs, including 65 CRTs) to the electromagnetic fields created by smartphones, specifically, the Samsung Galaxy 3, Nokia Lumia, HTC One XL.
"From earlier studies we know that the most vulnerable phases of a call are ringing and connecting to the network, not talking, so it was important to analyze these separately," he said at the conference.
"Interference between smartphones and cardiac devices is uncommon but can occur so the current recommendations on keeping a safe distance should be upheld," he said in conclusion.
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