No MP3 Headphone Near Heart Disease Patients Equipped with Defibrillator!

Listening to MP3 songs and music using MP3 digital music players with headphone has become a lifestyle of today’s youth. Lately, it seems to gain popularity among older generations as well. Nowadays, it is rather difficult to find a mobile phone that is without MP3 player.

From now on, people who like to listen to music using MP3 player with headphone should be more careful. This is because a new study revealed that the headphone used in MP3 player, if placed within an inch of lifesaving cardiac devices such as pacemakers or implantable defibrillators, the operation of those devices may be interfered.

Presented the findings at an American Heart Association conference during November 2008, the researchers from the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts found that neodymium appears to cause the devices to function improperly. This could thus pose a potential great risk to heart disease patients who rely on the devices. Neodymium is a magnetic substance that can be found in the MP3 player headphones.

By exposing to headphones, a defibrillator could temporarily be deactivated. As such, headphones accompanying the popular MP3 digital music players must be at a distance of at least 1.2 inches (or 3 centimeters) away from the implanted devices, according to the study.

Meanwhile, the scientists caution heart disease patients, who use heart devices, not to put the MP3 player headphones in their pocket or to hang them over their chest. They also advise friends or family members of heart disease patients with implantable defibrillators to avoid wearing headphones and not to rest their head right on top of the devices used in their family members or friends.

Nevertheless, the researchers determined that outside studies did not find any adverse reactions to pacemakers and defibrillators from other portable electronic devices like iPod, Bluetooth headsets, iPhone, electric blankets or hand-held airport metal detectors.

Incidentally, both iPod and iPhone are MP3 players and headphones used in other digital music players can be used in iPod and iPhone too. I wonder why there is such a different reaction. Perhaps further studies should be carried out to ascertain such disparities.

More Power Means More Functions For Pacemaker!

A pacemaker is a small device, which can be installed under the skin of a person’s chest or abdomen, for helping control abnormal heart rhythms. By using electrical pulses, such devices can prompt the heart to beat a normal rate.

Arrhythmia is the name given to describe abnormal heart rhythms. When a person has symptoms related to arrhythmias, his or her heart rhythms can be too slow, fast or simply irregular. With the help of a pacemaker, a person with abnormal heart rhythm could resume a more active lifestyle.

It has always been the wish of doctors to incorporate more functions into the pacemakers to help monitor the heart. However, to add new functions into pacemaker means more power is required, and the only way to increase the power is to use larger-size and heavier battery. Unfortunately, such change would certainly make patients feel uncomfortable and arouse rejection from the patients.

Good news has emerged recently when researchers have developed a tiny generator that can harvest the excess energy of a beating heart to help power a pacemaker or defibrillator, according to a paper presented at the American Heart Association's annual meeting during November 2008.

By capturing enough surplus heart energy, the experimental micro-generator, developed by the researchers from Southampton University Hospital in Britain, can in turn provide 17 percent of the power required to run a pacemaker. This means that new generation of devices that lasted significantly longer would be available soon and more functions that can help monitor the heart can be added.

Right now, the researchers have already started their work on how to improve the materials used in the generator in order to enhance the energy harvesting.

Defibrillators May Save Lives In Public Places!

Every year, some 300,000 Americans die from sudden cardiac arrest, which should be differentiated from heart attack. In fact, a heart attack may actually cause sudden cardiac death either during the first few hours of the heart attack or up to many years after the attack.

We can consider sudden cardiac death as an electrical malfunction while heart attack as one that is caused by blocked arteries (plumbing malfunction). Sudden cardiac arrest is a potentially deadly event, in which heart stops contracting and fails to pump blood properly.

When such event occurs in public places like airport or shopping mall, any bystanders could save the life of the victim using automatic external defibrillator (AED). A study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported that bystanders using battery-operated defibrillators might be saving more than 500 lives every year in the United States and Canada. The findings were presented at an American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Florida, on November 5, 2008.

The automatic defibrillators are of laptop size and are portable. They come with full set of instructions so that even the untrained bystanders could be guided through the rescue process. The defibrillator analyzes the person's heart rhythm and delivers a shock when necessary through the electrodes placed on the victim’s chest.

In the study, the researchers analyzed patient records from more than 10,600 incidents of cardiac arrest called into 911 emergency telephone lines in the 11 cities in the United States and Canada.

It is found that bystanders administered CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) in nearly 30 percent of the cases, while in 2.4 percent of the cases, bystanders offered CPR together with automated defibrillator. There was only 259 patients had been offered an AED by a bystander. Their survival is very good. If patients needed a shock and device shocked them, their survival rate is 36 percent, as compared to the overall rate of 7 percent.

Since the AEDs are available in public places, where people could get them fast in case of emergency, the survival rates with a defibrillator are about 2.5 times better than with the help of CPR alone.

The study advocates wider use of AEDs as the cost is considerably affordable. According to the researchers, for example, putting in AEDs in a building with 1,000 people will cost US$3,000, which is less than the price of a cup of latte.