Interference thresholds of cardiac pacemakers in electrical and magnetic 50 Hz fields

Posted on May 2, 2017

Together with the Clinic for Cardiology, Pneumology, Angiology and Internal Intensive Medicine (Medical Clinic I) of the Uniklinik Aachen, femu has published in the Journal Circulation of the American Heart Association the following article, "In Vivo Study of Electromagnetic Interference With Pacemakers Caused by Everyday Electric and Magnetic Fields". In this study, the interference of cardiac pacemakers in humans was investigated in 50 Hz fields with electrical field strengths between 0.5 kV/m to 30 kV/m and magnetic flux densities between 10 μT and 2550 μT. With this unique approach under worst-case conditions, the threshold of the first functional interference of the implant was identified and therefore, for the first time, the interference thresholds from a large group of cardiac pacemakers are available. These can now be related to international and national regulations for the protection against harmful effects of EMF, in which people with implants have generally not been considered up to now.
The article can be found in the EMF-Portal as well as on the Circulation homepage.