In vitro study of the electromagnetic interaction between wireless phones and an implantable neural stimulator.
Several clinical and laboratory studies have demonstrated electromagnetic interaction between implantable medical devices like pacemakers and cell phones being operated in close proximity. Those devices are largely now immune to phone interaction or procedures have been established to limit their interaction. The use of cell phones near people with implanted neural stimulators has not been studied. This research was initiated to investigate electromagnetic interaction between current cell phone technology and specific models of Cyberonics neural stimulators. Out of 1080 test runs conducted for this study, no interactions were observed, and it was concluded that the phone technologies examined in this study did not adversely affect the Cyberonics NeuroStar (Model 102) NeuroCybernetic Prosthesis (NCP) System. This article provides details on the experimental procedure that was used, which can also be used to test other neural stimulators and test technologies, and the results obtained.
Grant
Hank
H
Wireless EMC Center, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019-1016, USA. hgrant@ou.edu
Heirman
Donald
D
Kuriger
Glenn
G
Ravindran
Murali Manohar
MM
D040421:Cell Phone; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004867:Equipment Design; D004869:Equipment Safety; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009991:Oscillometry / Q000295:instrumentation; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted