People with pacemaker should keep a safe distance from smartphones to avoid unwanted painful shocks or pauses in function, a new study has warned. “Pacemakers can mistakenly detect electromagnetic interference from smartphones as a cardiac signal, causing them to briefly stop working,” said Dr Carsten lennerz, first author and cardiology resident in the Clinic for Heart and Circulatory Diseases.
“This leads to a pause in the cardiac rhythm of the pacing dependent patient and may result in syncope. For implantable cardioverter defibrillatorsthe external signal mimics a life threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmia, leading the ICD to deliver a painful shock,” said lennerz.