Lead (low signal amplitude)

Hi folks!  I have a dual- chamber medtronic for complete heart block.   I am pacer dependent as my rt ventrical paces 100 percent.  My last interrogation and 2 previous uploads show my rt atrial lead has "low signal amplitude suboptimal".  Looking at my report my rt atrium paces 0.1percent of the time.  Just curious others experience with this and is this considered a lead failure?  My pacemaker was placed Nov. 2017 and at the moment have 3.5-4 years left on battery hopefully. At this point they are just monitoring the situation.  Like said just curious if others have experienced this and what if anything happened? Lead replacement?  Thanks this forum and club are always so helpful!

Meredith

1 Comments

Right atrial lead

by Gemita - 2023-08-28 06:07:25

Meredith, my main observation is that you are only pacing 0.1 % in the right atrium, so I wonder just how much you really need your atrial lead?  Perhaps they are able to turn it off without any ill effects and just leave it in place, since I see you are 100 % paced in your right ventricle?  

How do you feel?  Do you have any unpleasant intermittent symptoms from a suboptimal atrial signal?  If you feel okay, I would try to ignore the problem.  Symptoms, if they occurred might give you an indication of whether or not you needed the atrial lead?  

I see you have several more years of battery life remaining, so they have time to watch you carefully to look for any difficulties.  Sometimes they leave old leads in place and then feed a new one if required, into the same vein next to the old lead, if there is space.  Because the risks associated with lead removal, especially when done by an experienced surgeon is less of a problem today, lead removal may be recommended if at the time of your battery replacement they decide you need a new atrial lead.

Please let us know what your cardiac team advise and do ask them to fully explain what a low signal amplitude suboptimal atrial lead actually means for you since you are only pacing 0.1% with the lead?  I hope you stay safe and that the problem will not trigger any unpleasant symptoms either now or in the future

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