Interference by Cellular Telephone with an Implantable Loop Recorder

Abstract

We report the observation of interference between an implanted loop recorder and a cellular telephone when the latter was placed over the subcutaneous pocket. The artifact produced during the ringing of the telephone was automatically recorded and stored in the device memory. A similar interference was documented during ex vivo testing.

Risk of cellular phone interference with an implantable loop recorder

“…Artifacts occurring at the time of ringing of the cellular phone were present on manually activated ECG in 55 tests and, in 6 instances, on both the manually activated and the automatically stored events (Figs. [1][2][3][4]. The onset of recording of these artifacts, which varied in frequency and amplitude, began 2 to 4 s before the first audible ringing tone and lasted throughout the ringing phase.…”

“…While undersensing of cardiac, and oversensing of non-cardiac electrical activity have both been described [8], published reports pertaining to EMI have been few [2,3,9,10]. In a case report by Gimbel and Wilkoff, artifacts mimicking a tachycardia were recorded by an ILR during magnetic resonance imaging.…”

“…The nominal or default value is 8. Increasing the setting lowers the sensing threshold voltage [3]. The device was programmed to store 1 manually activated, and 13 autoactivated events.…”

“…In that study, where the devices were separated by a distance of 20 cm, no effect was observed. One case has been reported of electrocardiographic artifacts recorded by an ILR during ringing of a cellular phone kept close to the device [3]. The ILR technical manual warns of potential interference by cellular phones kept in close proximity, resulting in improper device operation and corruption of the data stored in memory [4].…”

Generalized tonic-clonic seizures detected by implantable loop recorder devices: Diagnosing more than cardiac arrhythmias

“…[8][9][10] However, such artifacts lack the stereotypical tonic and then clonic phase progression that define generalized seizures. Implantable loop recorder detection of myopotentials produced by movement disorders (e.g., Parkinson disease) has, to our knowledge, never been reported.…”