Elsevier

Journal of Electrocardiology

Volume 41, Issue 5, September–October 2008, Pages 398-400
Journal of Electrocardiology

Electromagnetic interference produced by a hearing aid device on electrocardiogram recording

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2008.01.008Get rights and content

Abstract

An 85-year-old male was implanted with a single-chamber permanent pacemaker because of atrial fibrillation with slow ventricular response. The patient had a chronic hearing impairment and decided to buy a hearing aid device. The MyLink device (MyLink, Phonak, Stafa, Switzerland) is a multifrequency FM transmitter/receiver (169.40-176.00 MHz and 214.00-220.00 MHz) with a neck-loop antenna that is designed to be used in combination with a second FM transmitter, which detects sound, produced by an audio source or person, and transmits this information to the MyLink wearer. These transmissions are subsequently converted by the MyLink and sent to the patient's existing hearing aids wirelessly. Given the proximity of the receiver to the left-sided pacemaker pocket, a concern about possible interaction was brought to our attention. Normal functioning of the pacemaker was observed during the test. However, potent electromagnetic interference on electrocardiogram (ECG) recording was induced when the MyLink loop antenna was placed on top or near the ECG electrodes.

Section snippets

Case

We report an interesting case of electromagnetic interference (EMI) on an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine produced by a hearing aid device.

An 85-year-old male was implanted with a single-chamber permanent pacemaker (Ela Medical 133 Talent II S, Sorin Group, Montrouge, France) because of atrial fibrillation with slow ventricular response. The patient had a chronic hearing impairment and decided to buy a hearing aid device (MyLink, Phonak, Stafa, Switzerland). The MyLink device is a

References (3)

  • G. Altamura et al.

    Influence of digital and analogue cellular telephones on implanted pacemakers

    Eur Heart J

    (1997)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (6)

  • Electrocardiographic interference by a sacral neuromodulation device

    2017, Journal of Electrocardiology
    Citation Excerpt :

    In this case temporarily disabling the device allowed for acquisition of an accurate ECG recording, recognizing a normal rhythm. Other frequent sources of artifacts, such as lead misconnections, Parkinson disease and essential tremor, hearing aid devices, etc. may pose as a challenge to correct diagnosis of certain rhythm disturbances [5–7]. Artifacts produce by extra-cardiac devices may interfere with correct interpretation of an ECG.

  • Improved pacemaker pulse detection: Clinical evaluation of a new high-bandwidth electrocardiographic system

    2011, Journal of Electrocardiology
    Citation Excerpt :

    It recommends that “manufacturers should continue to develop improved algorithms for the identification and quantitative presentation of pacemaker stimulus outputs” and that “manufacturers incorporate a separate representation of detected pacemaker stimulus outputs … that would aid the identification of atrial, ventricular, and biventricular pacing signals.”9 The increased use of electronic devices in and outside of the hospital has increased the number of electrostatic and electromagnetic ambient noise sources; and some of these couple into the ECG signal, which can confound pacemaker pulse detection systems.10,11 GE Healthcare (Milwaukee, WI) has developed a new high-bandwidth 12-lead ECG acquisition system to address the problems with pacemaker pulse detection.12,13

  • Interferences or real ECG changes?

    2010, Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan
View full text