CIEDs (cardiac implantable electronic devices) error due to neutrons from X-ray therapy equipment

Interdisciplinary collaboration is necessary for the advancement of medicine. A lack of collaboration can lead to misconceptions and a lack of theoretical understanding, which can affect the care afforded to patients. With the right collaborations between scientists in fields outside of medicine, misconceptions can be corrected and understanding improved. Assistant Professor Hiroaki Matsubara, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan, is a nuclear physicist who is applying his skills and expertise to advance the field of medicine. Nuclear physics is used in several key techniques and tools in medicine such as X-rays and radiotherapy. Matsubara is interested in the issues that can arise in patients with implanted cardiac devices that require radiotherapy. The radiation from radiotherapy can affect the proper functioning of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs), leading to dangerous malfunctions, even when the tumour being targeted is far from the heart. From gathering data from clinical settings and running tests in non-clinical environments Matsubara found that there was no correlation between photon exposure levels and device malfunction, which suggested another source of malfunction arising after radiotherapy. Using his nuclear expertise, he was able to uncover the source of CIED malfunction following radiotherapy.