Abstract
Continuous wave (cw) microwave irradiation at 960 MHz has caused bradycardia in isolated, perfused rat hearts maintained at 20°C. The observed bradycardia occurred at microwave dose rates that should have caused mild tachycardia in the heart based on the thermogenic properties of the irradiation. The observed bradycardia, moreover, exhibited neurologic features because atropinized hearts showed strong tachycardia during irradiation and hearts treated with propranolol showed significantly stronger bradycardia during irradiation than that seen without drugs. Use of the liquid-crystal optical-fiber (LCOF) temperature probe has shown, by calorimetric methods, that the microwave-induced bradycardia occurred at dose rates of 1.3 and 2.1 mW/g. We hypothesize that microwave energy interacts with the remaining portion of the autonomic nervous system within the heart to produce the observed chronotropic effects.
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Olsen, R.G., Lords, J.L. & Durney, C.H. Microwave-induced chronotropic effects in the isolated rat heart. Ann Biomed Eng 5, 395–409 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02367318
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02367318