Personal medical electronic devices and walk-through metal detector security systems: assessing electromagnetic interference effects

Airport security as translation through division and movement

Based on an ethnographic research at Václav Havel Airport Prague, this article explores how contemporary airport security might by studied using an ANT-inspired approach. Security provision can be understood as a set of chains of translation that produces security and threat. Incoming actors, whose statuses are initially indeterminate, are translated into secure or threatening ones. This framing enables the uncovering of division and movement as the logics guide the system performance. The use of this perspective enables us to explicate the system's functioning in practice, including its inherent challenges and social consequences.

Security millimetre wave body scanner safe for patients with leadless pacemakers or subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillators

PURPOSE

This study was designed to evaluate the electromagnetic interference (EMI) effects and safety of the new security screening millimetre wave body scanners (MWBSs) for patients with rare cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs).

METHODS

We identified 73 patients with either entirely subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (S-ICD) or leadless pacemakers (LPM) attending routine device follow-up. CIED programming was optimised for the detection of EMI occurrence, and high-voltage therapy was disabled. Patients then underwent millimetre wave body scans under continuous ECG monitoring. Scanning was performed at the recommended distance as well as in close proximity to the scanner emulating accidental exposure. CIED function was observed for EMI effects.

RESULTS

There were no episodes of inhibition of pacing in the leadless pacemaker subgroup, no oversensing in the S-ICD subgroup and no spontaneous device reprogramming in any group. There was no change in pacing or sensing thresholds, and S-ICD vector eligibility remained unchanged after scanning with the MWBS. No CIEDs were identified by the MWBS during the study.

CONCLUSION

No EMI events were detected during the use of MWBSs by patients with either S-ICDs or LPMs. This data should be reassuring for patients suggesting that they can undergo security body scans without worries or disclosure of their CIED status.