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Medical Warning: MP3s Are Dangerous for Pacemakers!

Any signal interference could lead to major change in the patient's medical status

By Roxana Deduleasa, Gadget News Editor

29th of October 2007, 15:46 GMT

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News about the impact of the MP3 players upon human life just gets better and better. After in May, i4u has published the report of a 17-year-old student who conducted a study on the effect of iPods on pacemakers, straight at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University, things get even more complicated.

According to Telegraph.co.uk, several researchers at the Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, are

going to start tests on the way four different brands of MP3 players - with brand withheld - can affect both kids and adults that were fitted pacemakers.

The pacemakers are vital systems for the ones that wear them, as they send electrical impulses to the heart, in order to set the heart's rhythm. The electronic ones are said to interfere with the popular MP3 players.

The same Telegraph says that this is not the first set of test to be conducted in this regard. Some previous test have targeted mostly the elderly patients with an average age of 77. As a conclusion, the hospital's spokesman informed Telegraph: "Our hypothesis is that the close approximation of portable MP3 players interfere with the appropriate sensing and recording of pacemakers."

Not to mention that the research undertaken at Michigan State University, found out that when an MP3 player was held at two inches from a patient's chest for just 10 seconds it did interfer with pacemakers in most of the cases. The result? The electronic heart system became unable to monitor the heart beats, to regulate its speed and led to a wrong diagnosis.

It seems that for the time being, no doctor or research can actually say how big this problem is. However, doctors are concerned because even if an elder doesn't use an MP3 player, it could get close to one used by his/her grandchild. You can imagine just how many teenagers or kids own such a device as they become as popular as the toothbrush. So, the danger is even bigger.

For the same Telegraph, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, June Davison stated that a lot of gadgets can interfere with pacemakers, not only MP3 players. They're just the most common ones.

TAGS:

MP3 player | pacemakers | gadgets | heart beats | iPod

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