Need To Replace PM??

Hi All
Insignia AVT DR - Model 1292 Guidant Pacemaker was implanted in Oct'2005 for the reason that Neurocardiogenic Syncope. Even after implanting the device i have the same problems which were there prior to the implantation. The settings have been changed numerous times but the problems remains increasing episodes of giddiness, light headedness, short of breath and even i had a fainting (syncope) episodes too. So far around 6000 SBR (Sudden Brady Response) were recorded and to my surprise some were not recorded.
Recently I changed my Doctor and he conducted Head up Tilt Test to evaluate. During the syncope my Heart rate recorded 53 bpm and BP was 58/40. Now my doctor is of the opinion that during the syncope Rate drop response is responding after a minute and in this Guidant Insignia DDDR has no scope to adjust the delay timing less than a minute.

Now he is suggesting replacing the PM with New device which has Rate Drop response settings Less than 10 to 15 Seconds as I am very Symptomatic.

Anyone of our club members had a similar problem and any suggestions regarding new Pacemaker.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.
Ben

2 Comments

p.s.

by Tracey_E - 2010-10-02 07:10:14

I'm one of the administrators, I deleted your duplicate post. :o)

programming

by Tracey_E - 2010-10-02 07:10:59

I don't know much about the nuances of programming but I have some random thoughts. May or may not be useful, but I'll toss them out anyway :o)

I don't know much about how it works but I have and actively use rate drop response and it's great, but it took quite a bit of tweaking and reprogramming to get it right. Six months, two stress tests, 2 St Judes reps, half the partners in my drs practice, and finally I became a St Judes case study. But with all those heads and a lot of perseverance they got me fixed up!

Just looking at your numbers, I'm wondering why they're letting you get below 60, and your bp is awfully low, seems like that would cause the problems more so than the drop in hr. No pm will keep your bp up, only your hr.

How long is left on your battery? Unless the symptoms are really awful and he's really sure he can fix it with the features on the new one, I'd probably wait it out and make the change when you do the battery.

Is the new dr an ep? And have you had anyone decent from Guidant consulting? Reason I ask is a lot of time the mfr reps are better at fine tuning the devices than the drs since it's all they do. When mine has needed advanced fine tuning, my dr was involved but mostly sat back and let the st Judes rep handle it because he had access to their engineers and case studies.

Are they going to keep you with Guidant? Unless your dr is really sold on it, you might consider changing brands while you're at it. Medtronic and St Judes are much larger companies and have a lot more reps and case studies available. Sometimes when one rep can't find the answer, another one can, but the smaller company may only have one available.

Don't know if that's helpful or not! Good luck getting it straightened out. We have quite a few members with NCS, hopefully one of them will jump in soon.

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