In vitro and in vivo evaluation of electromagnetic interference between wireless home monitoring pacemakers and GSM mobile phones

Aim of this study was to evaluate whether GSM cellular phones can affect the pacemaker (PM) functioning or the home monitoring (HM) function. We performed in vitro and in vivo tests on the BA03 PM (Biotronik, Germany). In vitro we evaluated whether the PM functioning was affected by a mobile phone or whether an improper HM procedure or an altered patient-activated HM function occurred. Two cellular phone models were used, with fixed external or internal antenna, positioned both close to the pacemaker and to the mobile cell-phone-like device, during handover, ringing and talking. All the tests have been done with the PM in air, at 900 and 1800 MHz GSM. We found that the neither the PM functioning nor the HM procedure are altered by a GSM communication. On the basis of these findings, we performed a subset of tests in 11 patients: the two phone models used for the in vitro protocol were moved both around the pacemaker implant site and the mobile cell-phone-like device at 900 MHz and 1800 MHz GSM during talking. All the patient-activated transmissions were correctly received by the service center, with a maximum transmission delay of 110 s.