1973 - persinger - international journal of biometerology - possible cardiac driving by an external...

7/30/2019 1973 - Persinger - International Journal of Biometerology - Possible Cardiac Driving by an External Rotating Magne

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Int. J. Bi omet eo r. 1973, vol. 17, numb er 3, pp. 263-266263

Poss ib le Card iac D r iv ing by an Externa l R ota t ingM agnet ic F ie ld

b y M . A . P e r s in g e r

INTRODUCTIONMuch interest has been generated concerning biogenic and exogenic extremelylow frequency or ELF (0.01-100 Hz) elec trom agne tic fields (Per sing er, Ludwig

and Ossenkopp, 1973). Perhap s one of the strong est living ELF gene rat ors is thehea rt. Cohen and Chandler (1969) ha ve de sc rib ed it as a rota ting bipole thatproduces electr ic ion currents and a concomitant t ime-varying magnetic f ie ld ex-tending outside the torso. These data suggested the possib ility that an externa lrotating magnetic field dipole might influence card iac behav ior, espe cial ly underconditions of failu re or desynchrony. This lat ter assu mption see med plausible inlight of the ex per im ent s by Wev er (1970, 1971) who re po rte d a 10 Hz el ec tr icfield (2.5 V/m) as an effective res ync hro niz er (Zeitgeber) of desync hroniz ed ci r-cadian systems in human subjects.

METHODThirty male Wistar strain albino rats about one year of age were divided intothre e groups, equalized for body weight. The subjects had been obtained fro mthe Bio-Breeding Laboratories as ret ir ed bre ede rs. The rotating magnetic f ie ld(RMF) was created by two horseshoe magnets which were rotated about theirmajor axes by an electr ic motor at 29 rot/rain. A diagram and detailed descrip-tion of the apparatus have been published (Per sing er and Pear, 1972). The ex-posure areas for this study were directly between the magnets (10-20 gauss),50 cm away ( < 1-5 gauss) and 200 cm from the ma gnet s (the contr ol ar ea ). Therunning apparatus without the magnets attached was call ed the sham field.On each experimental day three rats were weighed and injected ip with Na

pentobarbital (0.4 mg/kg), put aside for 15 min and strapped on their backs towooden slabs by tape acr oss each foot. ECG surf ace ele ctr ode s were then at-tached. The thr ee subjects we re placed in eit her the two RMF and contro l posi-tions or in the two sham (same are a as the RMF positions, but no magnetspresent) and control position s. The animals in the RMF apparatus were placedso that the i nter face line of the fields between the two turning magnets cr oss edthe heart are a. Since i t was assumed that a s lowly fail ing card iova scula r s yste mwould be most susceptible to possib le RMF driving effects, suc ce ssi ve doses ofthe barbituate (0.22 mg/kg) were given every 30 min unless the animal had diedor marked arryt hmia was prevalent. Following the third injection, continuousECGs were taken on each subject. Two minutes a fter ce ssat ion of contr actio n(absence of QRS), the subject s wer e quickly rem ove d and decapitated. Bloodsampl es for oxyhemoglobin, ser um iron and SGOT (transamina se) lev els were*) Environme ntal Psychophysiology Laboratory, Departmen t of Psychology,Lauren tian Univ ersi ty, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.Received 6 February 1973


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2 6 4t a k e n a n d a n a l y z e d . T h e f i r s t 1 2 a n i m a l s (4 r a t s / c o n d i t i o n ) w e r e t e s t e d 2 7 - 3 0 M a y1 9 72 ( E x p e r i m e n t I ), w h i l e t h e r e m a i n i n g 1 8 a n i m a l s w e r e t e s t e d 2 0 - 2 7 J u l y 19 72( E x p e r i m e n t I I ) .

R E S U L T ST h e r e s u l t s o f b o t h E x p e r i m e n t s I a n d II i n d i c a t e t h a t d r u g - i n d u c e d f a i l i n g r a th e a r t s y s t e m s , w h e n w i t h i n f r e q u e n c y r a n g e o f t h e a p p l i e d R M F , w i l l s h o w c o n -t r a c t i o n r a t e s i n t h e f i e ld r a n g e l o n g e r t h a n c o n t r o l o r s h a m - f i e l d a n i m a l s .F i g u r e 1 i s r e p r e s e n t a t i v e o f a n i m a l s f r o m t h e R M F , s h a m - f i e l d a n d c o n t r o l c o n -d i t i o n s . F o r s t a t i s t i c a l a n a l y s i s th e n u m b e r o f m i n u t e s t h a t e a c h a n i m a l s h o w e dc o n t r a c t i o n f r e q u e n c i e s b e t w e e n 2 6 - 3 2 c o n t r a c t i o n s / m i n ( R M F = 2 9 r o t / m i n ) w a sc o u n t e d . I n 7 / 3 0 r a t s ( 2 R M F s , 2 c o n s , a n d 3 s h a m s ) , Q R S t e r m i n a t e d b e f o r ea p p r o a c h i n g f i e l d r a n g e ( _>60 Q R S / m i n ) a n d c o n s e q u e n t l y t h e y w e r e n o t u s e d i nt h e a n a l y s i s . T h e R M F - e x p o s e d , c o n t r o l a n d s h a m - f i e l d g r o u p s a v e r a g e d 6 . 2 ,

1 . 0 a n d 0 . 3 m i n r e s p e c t i v e l y , i n t h e a n a l y s i s r a n g e i n E x p e r i m e n t I a n d 7 . 8 , 2 . 0a n d 0 . 2 m i n r e s p e c t i v e l y , i n t h e a n a l y s i s r a n g e i n E x p e r i m e n t I I . C o m b i n i n g E x -p e r i m e n t s I a n d I I , t h e R M F - e x p o s e d , c o n t r o l a n d s h a m - f i e l d g r o u p s a v e r a g e d7 . 0 , 1 . 6 a n d 0 . 3 m i n i n t h e 2 6 - 3 2 c o n t r a c t i o n s / m i n r a n g e . T h e s e d i f f e r e n c e sw e r e f o u n d b y a n a l y s i s o f v a r i a n c e t o b e s i g n i f i c a n t b e y o n d th e 0 . 0 01 l e v e l( F = 2 0 . 8 4 ; d f = 2 / 2 0 ) . I n d i v i d u a l t - t e s t s i n d i c a t e d s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s(p < 0 . 0 01 ) b e t w e e n t h e R M F - e x p o s e d a n d c o n t r o l o r s h a m - f i e l d g r o u p s b u t n o tb e t w e e n t h e s h a m - f i e l d a n d c o n t r o l g r o u p s .

6 0 ( ~ /i5 O

4 0

3 0 ' - . . . . ~ . . . . U ~ i - o - : - : 5 : 5 - -

~ d / _ ' \ ~ ~ - 0 - - O _ _ O - ~ / / / ~ C O N T R O LH ELF-

:I _ _ L i J .__ ] _ L I' L ~ ~ I l ~ _ 2 L L I I [ I0 2 4 6 8 IO 12 14 16 18 19Controcfions Ceose* - - - MINUTES BEFORE CONTRACTIONS CEASE

F i g . I . T h e n u m b e r o f h e a r t c o n t r a c t i o n s ( b e a t s / m i n ) i n t h e 19 m i np e r i o d b e f o r e c o n t r a c t i o n s c e a s e d f o r i n d i v id u a l r a t s r e p r e -s e n t a t i v e o f t h e R M F - e x p o s e d ( e 8 ), c o n t r o l (o o ) a n ds h a m - f i e l d ( o - - o ) g r o u p s . M i n u t e 0 i n d i c a t e s t h e i n t e r v a l inw h i c h Q R S t e r m i n a t e d . N o t e c o n t r a c t i o n f r e q u e n c i e s o f t h e R M F -e x p o s e d h e a r t s r e m a i n e d l o n g e r w i t h in a n a r r o w e r f r e q u e n c y b a n da r o u n d t h a t o f t h e e x t e r n a l r o t a t i n g m a g n e t i c f i e l d (2 9 r o t / m i n )b e f o r e t e r m i n a t i n g .


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265th e sl ight but non-significant increase d control group t ime in the analysis rangesuggests that 200 em from the magnets may not be sufficient to eliminate effec-t ive RMF intensit ies . There were no significant differences between groups inSGOT, ser um iron or oxyhemoglobin me asu re men ts although a 10% inc rea sedoxyhemoglobi n lev el in the RMF group was evid ent (0.10 > p > 0.05). No sign ifi-cant differenc es were noted between groups with res pec t to number of bar bitu rateinjections befor e death. The RMF-e xpos ed rats aver aged 9.1 inje ctions ( %4.5hr RMF exposure) while the sham and control groups ave rag ed 8.0 and 8.6 inj ec-t ions, respe ctive ly. An interest ing tendency for increa sed QRS amplitudes inRMF-e xpos ed ra ts dying both within and above RMF freque ncy range was noted.

DISCUSSIONCurrently, attem pts are being ma de to "drive " the falling rat heart with variable

frequen cy RMF s. The se data evoke interesting questions concer ning the role ofexternal EL F signals as cardi ovasc ular stimuli. Scattered correlational evid enceof possible EL F-c ardi ova scu lar effects has been reported in recent years (Bre-zowsky and Ranscht- Froemsd orff, 1966). Cardiofrequency ELF signals seem tooriginate from labile weat her sys tem s and to be associated with solar flares.ELF signals have been measur ed as sinusoidal waves or as ELF pulses of VLFwave s. A recent revi ew (Persinger, Lud wig and Ossen kopp, 1973) has descri bedtheir characteristics and interesting proper ties of penetrability, long distanceprop aga tio n-lo w attenuation, and bioeleetric range patterns. Th es e fields canhave electric and magn etic com pon ent s of < 1 mV/ m to > 1 V/m and


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266PERSINGER, M.A. and PEAR, J. 5. (1972): Pren atal ex posure to an ELF -ro ta ti ngmagnetic field and subsequent increase in conditionedsuppres sion. Develop. Psych obiol. , 5: 269-274.PERSINGER, M. A. , LUDWIG, H.W. and OSSENKOPP, K. P . (1973) : Ps yc ho-physiological effects of extremely low frequencyelectromag netic f ie lds: a review. Pet e . MotorSkills.TENG, L. R. and HOWARD, H. E. (1955) : The re lat ionsh ip betw een sudden cha nge sin weather and the occu rrenc e of acute myocardia linfarction. A mer. Heart J. , 49: 9-20.WEVER, R. (1971) : Die eir ca dia ne Per iodi k des Menschen als Indikatorftlr die biologische Wirkung elektromagnetischerFelde r. Z. physik. Med. , 2:439-47 1.WEVER, R. (1970) : The effec ts of el ec tr ic field s on cir ca dia n rhy thmi cityin men. Life Sei. and Space Re s. , 8 : 177-187.

ABST RACT .- The possib le role of a rotating magnetic field as a potential"dr ive r" for expe rimentally drug-induced fail ing heart systems was investigated.In two exper iments, rats that had been exposed during succ ess ive doses of pento-barbita l for approximat ely four hours to a rotating magnetic field of 0.5 Hz, 1-20gauss, showed contra ction rat es within the field frequency range significantlylonger than eithe r control field or s ham- fie ld rats before ce ssati on of QRS. How-eve r no significant differen ces we re found between the groups in SGOT, se ru m-iron or oxyhemoglobin lev els . Implications of the result s are disc ussed in relat ionto natural ELF ca rdiofrequency signals and fail ing cardiac systems.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG.- In zwei Experimenten mit Ratten wurde untersueht obrotierende magnetische Felder als Steuerfaktor bei barbituratinduziertem Nach-las sen d er Herzfunktion eine Rolle spiel en. Tie re, die in 30 Min Abst~tnden Na-Pentobarbiturat erhielten und w~ihrend 4 Stunden einem rotierenden magnetisehenFel d der St~rke von 0, 5 Hz 10-20 Gauss au sges et zt ware n, ze igt en signifika nt l~tnge-re Herzkontraktionsraten innerhalb des Feldfrequenzbereiches vor dem Sti l ls tanddes QRS als Kontrollgruppen. Im Ser umt ran sam ina se- (GOT), Seru mei sen- undOxyh~imoglobinspiegel waren am Versuchse nde keine signifikanten Unterseh iedezwischen den Gruppen fests tel lba r. Die Bedeutung der Befunde wird unter Bezugatff nati irl iche niederfrequente elektromagnet ische Herzfrequenzi mpulse und ge-schw~ichte Herzfunktion besprochen.

RESU ME. - L'au teur a 6tudi6 les possibili t6s d'effets d'un champ magn6tiquetournant agissant comme "stimulateur" possible des syst~mes cardiaques d6fail-lants par suite de l ' influenee de drogues administr6es exp~rimentalement. Lotsde deux expe rienc es, des rats, sous l ' influ ence de doses s uec ess ive s de pento-barbital, ont ~t8 expos6s pendant approxima tiveme nt quatre h eures hu n champtournant de 0.5 Hz et 1-20 gauss. Ils ont alor s montr6 des rythmes de con tra c-tions com pri ses darts les limi tes de l 'Sche lle de fr6quenee du champ, de durSesignifi cative ment plus longue avant la ces sati on du QRS, que eeux de rats exposesun champ de contrS le ou {t un champ simul~ . Cependant, le s gr oupes n'ont pasmontr6 de diff6renees marquantes en ee qui eoneerne les niveaux de la trans-aminas e du s6rum, du taux de fer ou de l 'oxyh6moglobine. Les implicati ons desrS~ultats sont 6tudi6es darts la relation existant entre les signaux naturels defr6quence eardiaque IF et les syst~mes cardiaques d6fail lants .

1973 - persinger - international journal of biometerology - possible cardiac driving by an external...

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