Headphones May Threatens Heart-Device Performance

-->

A U.S. study proffers more evidence that portable headphones can create magnetic intrusion that might make implanted defibrillators and pacemakers malfunction.

Using the headphones over the ears doesn't emerge to be a problem, but storing them in a shirt or jacket pocket near the chest or allowing them to suspend near the heart could spell trouble.

The findings should give confidence doctors to spend more time talking to their patients about the probable risks of headphones, which could disturb signaling and intimidate lives, the study authors said in a report published in the October issue of the Heart Rhythm Journal.

The researchers inspected several kinds of portable headphones in 100 patients. They found the level of magnetic intrusion they produce may be enough to disturb the devices' ability to detect problems in the heart's rhythm. In other words, the devices could miss an irregular heart rhythm and fail to rearrange it to a proper speed.

"As digital music devices continue their current popularity, the hazard of device communication from portable headphones should be accounted for in patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and pacemakers," lead author Dr. William H. Maisel of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard University, said in a news release from the Heart Rhythm Society. "This study supports the need for a doctor-patient dialogue that includes warnings against certain scenarios, such as hanging headphones around the neck or storing them inside a front shirt pocket or jacket pocket."

The headphones caused interference whether or not they were linked to a music player. But the devices worked properly when the patients took off the headphones.

Of the 100 patients studied, 55 had implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and 45 had pacemakers.