By Laura French
ITALY — A report published in a medical journal on Monday showed that a battery swallowed by a patient in Italy mimicked signs of a heart attack on an EKG.
The report by Italian doctors, which appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine, stated that the patient, a 26-year-old prison inmate, was transported to the emergency room two hours after intentionally swallowing the AA battery, according to NBC News.
The patient complained of stomach pain and an X-ray showed that the object appeared to be stuck in his stomach. When doctors performed an EKG test, the pattern of electrical activity appeared the same as would commonly be seen in a heart attack patient. However, the man showed no other signs of a heart attack and further tests revealed no heart issues.
The authors of the report wrote that the battery in the man’s stomach produced enough electricity to produce the EKG pattern that mimicked a heart attack. The authors further stated that previous cases involving multiple ingested batteries have shown EKG changes, but that interference from just one battery was surprising.