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Effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields on electrocardiogram: analysis with quadratic time-frequency distributions.

Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference · 2005 · Mixed · Very low evidence

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MixedVery low evidencePaper 3538

ECG and EEG were recorded before and after ELF-PEMF exposure in 17 healthy volunteers. EEG showed small variations before vs after exposure; ECG power level increased up to 1% for most subjects, and small shifts in the ECG frequency-domain signal were reporte…

Study snapshot

PublicationConference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference · 2005
Study typeother
Reported directionMixed
Evidence ratingVery low

Abstract

Recently we have studied the effects of extremely low frequency pulsed electromagnetic fields (ELF-PEMF) on the human biosignals. Electrocardiogram (ECG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) of seventeen healthy volunteers before and after the electromagnetic (EMF) exposure were recorded and analyzed. The root mean square (RMS) values of the recoded data were considered as comparison criteria. EEG results were shown that there were small variations in the brain electrical activity before and after exposure. The ECG power level was increased up to 1% for most of the subjects. In this paper, we further investigate the effects of the ELF-PEMF on the ECG signal using the hyperbolic T-distributions (HTD). This distribution was shown to be suitable for efficient amplitude and instantaneous frequency (IF) estimation of monoand multicomponent FM signals. In this work, we introduce this distribution to the analysis of ECG signals. The simulation results show that the HTD have a good performance in the analysis of the ECG signals comparing with the Choi-Williams distribution (CWD). Moreover, the results show that there are small shift in the frequency-domain signal before and after EMF exposure.

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AI evidence extraction

Structured fields below were generated from the paper’s abstract and metadata to make the evidence easier to inspect. Automated extraction may be incomplete or incorrect; verify important details against the original paper.

Study typeother
Effect directionmixed
PopulationSeventeen healthy volunteers
Sample size17
ExposureELF
Evidence strengthVery lowConfidence: 66% · Peer reviewed: yes

Main findings

ECG and EEG were recorded before and after ELF-PEMF exposure in 17 healthy volunteers. EEG showed small variations before vs after exposure; ECG power level increased up to 1% for most subjects, and small shifts in the ECG frequency-domain signal were reported. The paper also reports that hyperbolic T-distributions performed well for ECG analysis compared with the Choi-Williams distribution in simulations.

Outcomes measured

  • Electrocardiogram (ECG) changes (power level, frequency-domain shifts)
  • Electroencephalogram (EEG) changes (brain electrical activity variations)

Limitations

  • Exposure parameters (e.g., field strength, frequency, duration) not reported in the abstract
  • Before-after design described without mention of a control/sham condition in the abstract
  • Small sample size (n=17)
  • Magnitude of reported ECG change is small (up to 1%) and clinical significance is not addressed in the abstract
  • Some results are based on simulations of analysis methods rather than biological effects
View raw extracted JSON
{
  "study_type": "other",
  "exposure": {
    "band": "ELF",
    "source": "pulsed electromagnetic fields (ELF-PEMF)",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": null
  },
  "population": "Seventeen healthy volunteers",
  "sample_size": 17,
  "outcomes": [
    "Electrocardiogram (ECG) changes (power level, frequency-domain shifts)",
    "Electroencephalogram (EEG) changes (brain electrical activity variations)"
  ],
  "main_findings": "ECG and EEG were recorded before and after ELF-PEMF exposure in 17 healthy volunteers. EEG showed small variations before vs after exposure; ECG power level increased up to 1% for most subjects, and small shifts in the ECG frequency-domain signal were reported. The paper also reports that hyperbolic T-distributions performed well for ECG analysis compared with the Choi-Williams distribution in simulations.",
  "effect_direction": "mixed",
  "limitations": [
    "Exposure parameters (e.g., field strength, frequency, duration) not reported in the abstract",
    "Before-after design described without mention of a control/sham condition in the abstract",
    "Small sample size (n=17)",
    "Magnitude of reported ECG change is small (up to 1%) and clinical significance is not addressed in the abstract",
    "Some results are based on simulations of analysis methods rather than biological effects"
  ],
  "evidence_strength": "very_low",
  "confidence": 0.66,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "yes",
  "keywords": [
    "extremely low frequency",
    "ELF-PEMF",
    "electromagnetic fields",
    "ECG",
    "EEG",
    "time-frequency distributions",
    "hyperbolic T-distribution",
    "Choi-Williams distribution",
    "frequency-domain shift",
    "RMS"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "elf-emf",
      "weight": 0.9,
      "reason": "Study evaluates effects of extremely low frequency pulsed electromagnetic fields on human biosignals (ECG/EEG)."
    }
  ]
}
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AI-extracted fields are generated from the abstract and metadata and may be incomplete or incorrect. This material is for informational purposes and is not medical advice.

Identifiers and source

DOI: 10.1109/iembs.2005.1616545
PubMed: 17282314

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