Many individuals use fitness trackers, similar to smartwatches, as a part of achieving a healthy lifestyle — but some cardiac patients should pay attention to the risks.
Some smart scales, smart rings and wearable fitness devices that use “bioimpedance,” a sensing technology that emits a tiny unnoticeable electrical current into the body, may interfere with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs), like pacemakers and defibrillators, based on a recent study.
The research was published on Feb. 21 in Heart Rhythm.
“We found bioimpedance sensing technology available in certain consumer devices similar to smart scales, smartwatches, and smart rings could interfere with the correct functioning of CIEDs,” lead creator Dr. Benjamin Sanchez Terrones of Utah told Fox News Digital.
He’s an assistant professor within the department of electrical and computer engineering and member of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
CIEDs include pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), based on the American Heart Association.
The study noted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not cleared any consumer bioimpedance device for patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices due to the potential electrical interference.
Yet not all of the commercially available trackers have bioimpedance sensing technology, he added.
“The FDA published a study in 2021 in the identical journal as we did where they found that each the Apple iPhones and the Apple smartwatches create a magnetic interference to CIEDs when closer than 6 inches,” Sanchez Terrones noted.
“As indicated by the manufacturers of those devices and the suggestion by the American Heart Association for other devices that can also interfere, the safest [step] just isn’t to make use of them by this population [who have CIEDs].”
He added that for any questions on these devices, patients should all the time refer to their health care providers.
Bioimpedance sensing: What’s it?
“Bioimpedance sensing is a technology [in which] a tiny, painless, alternating electrical current is applied to the body by the smartwatch, smart ring, or smart scale, and utilized by the device to measure the body’s response,” Sanchez Terrones said.
An application of this technology is measuring body composition, “where this electrical current is used to measure hydration level and fat mass content,” he said.
Wearable fitness trackers use this sensing technology to record the extent of stress or vital signs, similar to heart rate or the variety of steps taken on daily basis, per the study’s press release.
Smart scales and rings
Some smart scales and rings also use bioimpedance sensing, Sanchez Terrones said.
“When the person is barefoot on the size, then the size — along with measuring weight — uses bioimpedance sensing to use an electrical current from one foot to the opposite in some cases, sometimes from the foot to the hand if the smart scale also has a handle bar with sensors in it, to then measure segmental body composition,” Sanchez Terrones added.
The size can measure fat mass within the legs, arms and trunk individually for more accuracy, he added.
Electromagnetic risk well-known
The electromagnetic waves on metal detectors and certain devices, similar to cell phones, headphones and radios, can keep a cardiac defibrillator or pacemaker from functioning properly, the American Heart Association warns.
“This form of interference had been previously described with smartphones, but a possible risk with smartwatches had not been fully appreciated,” Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt, director of Mount Sinai Heart and a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Recent York City, told Fox News Digital.
The association advises patients with an implantable defibrillator or pacemaker to make use of their mobile phone not less than six inches from their implantable device (by keeping it on the ear opposite where their device was implanted).
It also reminds them not to maintain their mobile phone of their front chest pocket.
What exactly are CIEDs?
Normally the center beats by itself through its natural pacemaker generally known as the sinus node.
“Your heart’s electrical system controls your heartbeat, starting in a bunch of cells at the highest of the center (sinus node) and spreading to the underside, causing it to contract and pump blood,” based on the Mayo Clinic’s website.
“Aging, heart muscle damage from a heart attack, some medications and certain genetic conditions could cause an irregular heart rhythm,” the web site added.
When this natural pacemaker stops working properly, the center can beat too fast or too slowly — so a small, artificial and battery-operated pacemaker might be placed to permit the center to beat in a daily rhythm, per the American Heart Association.
An ICD, or implantable defibrillator, is a small battery-powered device that’s placed to stop sudden death. It will shock the patient if she or he experiences life-threatening cardiac rhythms generally known as ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, based on Mayo Clinic’s website.
When these rhythms occur, the center can beat so fast that it stops pumping blood out to the remainder of the body.
FDA sets standard of electromagnetic compatibility
The researchers evaluated the electrical safety of measuring bioimpedance sensing technology using technical specifications which are established by the FDA.
The researchers first evaluated implantable cardiac devices from three different manufacturers — Medtronic, Boston Scientific and Abbott — in benchtop testing, which is finished to have a superbly controlled testing environment.
“The advantage of this approach is that it facilitates the testing of various manufacturers of CIEDs in a reproducible and repeatable fashion,” said the lead creator. “Nevertheless, it doesn’t account for the very fact people should not manufactured from cables.”
Since it just isn’t possible to review the bioimpedance interference inside actual human beings, the study included computer modeling.
“We simulated with modeling the extent of bioimpedance interference using a smartwatch, smart scale, and smart ring form factor on a male and a female human computer model with a CIED,” Sanchez Terrones said.
“Bioimpedance sensing generated an electrical interference that exceeded Food and Drug Administration-accepted guidelines and interfered with proper CIED functioning,” added Sanchez Terrones within the press release.
Researchers noted that the extent of electrical current sometimes “confused” the implantable devices, although the extent and the “confusion effect” differed among the many three different manufacturers.
“It is a clever study that implies there could also be a possible for wearable devices, similar to smartwatches, to interfere with medical devices, similar to pacemakers and implantable defibrillators,” said Bhatt, who was not a part of the study.
Study’s limitations
Although the study’s computer models are more accurate by way of human anatomy than plain cables, it didn’t account for all of the biological variability between people, Sanchez Terrones admitted.
He recommends further clinical studies on patients to ensure that the scientific and medical community get probably the most complete information possible to make an informed decision.
“It can be essential to see how regulators and manufacturers reply to these results to supply concrete guidance to patients,” Bhatt added.
