Pacemaker Problem

Hi everyone! I have had my pacer nearly a year and have been having problems with shortness of breath, dizziness, etc. I just had a stress test that showed that when my heart rate reached its high rate (140) my heart rate dropped to 70 (near the low setting for my pacer). the tech. thought that my pacemaker was probably causing the rate to do that. Have any of you every had this issue? If so, what is the solution?

2 Comments

sounds like rate drop response...

by Pookie - 2010-03-10 05:03:34

however, not all pacemakers have that feature.

My Medtronic Enpulse does not have it.

I have been having problems with dizziness and shortness of breath too and I am currently wearing an Event Recorder for a month ~ sometimes called a Loop Recorder.

Ask your doctor what is going on, not the tech.

Take care,
Pookie

settings

by Tracey_E - 2010-03-10 11:03:22

Has your dr looked at the results of the stress test? Because your tech doesn't sound like he has a clue. Yes, your pm can do that, or it could be your heart. Either way, they should be able to adjust your settings and fix it. The stress test should give them a clear picture of what happened, if it was the pm or you.

If it's your heart doing that on its own, the pm can be programmed to prevent the sudden drops. I think it's called rate drop response, or something like that. I had a similar problem and it's a fairly easy thing to fix. They just set the pm to watch how quickly your rate slows down and prevent sudden drops.

Pm's have a safety measure that detects afib and it puts you into an artificial block to keep your hr from getting too high, sending out only 1 ventricular beat for every 2 atrial beats. That would cause your hr to go from 140 to 70. Your atria was probably still doing 140 but the pm may have decided you were in afib and was only pacing your ventricles at 70.

Are you bumping the upper limit of the pm when you exercise? The stress test should tell you. If you are, then raising the upper limit can fix it. If your atria is getting up to 160 but the pm is only set to go to 140, you're going to get tired and sob. Raising the upper limit to a comfortable cushion over where you get on your own should take care of it.

This is what happens to me... my atrial rate will get up higher than the pm can pace when I work out. The pm would sense that fast rate and think I was in afib so it would throw me into a 2:1 block and I'd get a sudden drop in rate. Felt awful!!! Puts a quick end to a work out. They raised my upper limit, adjusted the rate drop response to catch the times my rate dropped off on its own, turned off the afib thing since I have no history of it... that got rid of the symptoms. And no, this did not happen overnight! I had three or four things going on and it took several months and two stress tests and three reps scratching their heads before they got it worked out. Odds are, you do not have that much going on! My point is, it can all be fixed. :o)

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