I need some extra help!!

What's the difference from being paced in the atrium than being paced in the ventricles? I don't understand what the doctor meant when he said my ventrilcle is being paced less and the atrium more he said the conduction system is getting better.. But my atrium part is being paced more.. This is from my last visit in May until now.. I don't get it can anybody help me out. and also I live in Michigan and am thinking about going to Ann Arbor to the University of Mich. for treatment to find a new E.P. because this one refuses to go into depth about whats going on with me and won't explain my print outs. Has anyone ever heard thats the best hospital to go to about hearts?

1 Comments

pacing

by Tracey_E - 2009-11-10 09:11:02

A dual chamber pm has 2 leads, one in the atria and one in the ventricle. The SA node in the atria is our natural pacemaker. It reads how much oxygen is coming from the lungs and raises/lowers our hr according to our activity and causes the atria to beat. Think of it as the brains of the operation. If the SA node slacks off and lets your hr drop too low, the pm will generate a beat to pick up the slack, this is atrial pacing. It can also sense when you are exercising and raise your hr for you if your SA node doesn't do it first.

The SA node in the atria tells the AV node in the ventricles when to beat. The ventricles are the brawn, they have the strength to to generate the strong beat we feel as our pulse. In the case of an AV block, the signal always or sometimes does not get through. The pm is always watching. Any time the atria beats but the ventricle doesn't follow, the pm generates a ventricular beat. In this case, it's not setting the pace but completing the broken circuit.

When he says your conduction is getting better, he probably means the signal is getting through more from the SA node to the AV node, so you are pacing ventricular less.

An aside, just because the numbers change doesn't necessarily mean your condition is changing drastically. Every time they tweak your settings, your numbers will change. Don't stress over the little changes. What matters is how you feel. If you feel good, don't overthink it. ;o)

If you post the numbers from your report, some of the guys here will explain it to you.

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