Influence of electromagnetic radiation emitted by daily-use electronic devices on the Eyemate® system in-vitro: a feasibility study

BACKGROUND: Eyemate® is a system for the continual monitoring of intraocular pressure (IOP), composed of an intraocular sensor, and a hand-held reader device. As the eyemate®-IO sensor communicates with the hand-held reader telemetrically, some patients might fear that the electronic devices that they use on a daily basis might somehow interfere with this communication, leading to unreliable measurements of IOP. In this study, we investigated the effect of electromagnetic radiation produced by a number of everyday electronic devices on the measurements made by an eyemate®-IO sensor in-vitro, in an artificial and controlled environment. METHODS: The eyemate®-IO sensor was suspended in a sterile 0.9% sodium chloride solution and placed in a water bath at 37 °C. The antenna, connected to a laptop for recording the data, was positioned at a fixed distance of 1 cm from the sensor. Approximately 2 hrs of “quasi-continuous” measurements were recorded for the baseline and for a cordless phone, a smart-phone and a laptop. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare any possible differences between the baseline and the tested devices. RESULTS: For baseline measurements, the sensor maintained a steady-state, resulting in a flat profile at a mean pressure reading of 0.795 ± 0.45 hPa, with no apparent drift. No statistically significant difference (p = 0.332) was found between the fluctuations in the baseline and the tested devices (phone: 0.76 ± 0.41 hPa; cordless: 0.787 ± 0.26 hPa; laptop: 0.775 ± 0.39 hPa). CONCLUSION: In our in-vitro environment, we found no evidence of signal drifts or fluctuations associated with the tested devices, thus showing a lack of electromagnetic interference with data transmission in the tested frequency ranges.