Why the study?
Does placing a magnet over a pacemaker cause inadvertent shocks in patients with an AICD?
Does placing a magnet over a pacemaker cause inadvertent shocks in patients with an AICD?
AICDs should be deactivated while a magnet is placed over a pacemaker during routine checks to avoid inadvertent shocks caused by double counting of QRS complexes and pacer artifacts.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Magnet placement over pacemakers may cause inadvertent AICD shocks via double counting; this case report leaves open whether routine deactivation is warranted.
A patient with an automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD) received two inadvertent shocks when a magnet was placed over the pacer during a routine permanent pacer check. Analysis of the rhythm strip suggested that both patients' QRS complexes (133 beats/minute) and asynchronous pacer artifacts (70 beats/minute) were counted by the AICD sensing system and exceeded the rate criteria of 153 beats/minute. This resulted in shocks from the AICD during sinus rhythm at 133 beats/minute. To avoid possible inadvertent shocks, an AICD should be deactivated while a magnet is placed over the pacemaker during a permanent pacer check.
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Kim et al. (1987) studied this question.
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