Pacemaker Club: Pacemaker Settings

Pacemaker Settings

by Aulee
2017-04-16 13:42:28
Checkups & Settings
1509 views
3 comments

Don't know/understand all the technical terms related to my PM/condition, but here goes....

Fairly active 65-yr old woman who got a dual chamber St. Jude PM (Zephry #5820) back in 2011 for SSS/heart block/bradycardia. Base rate set at 60. Various sensor settings were adjusted over the years since I never felt right when exercising (going from heavy legs/SOB/difficulty with uphills & then later, heart in throat/SOB with hills). Finally pushed to see an EP/be checked while on a treadmill... should take place this coming week with specialized tech from mfg. EP felt the settings I had were very aggressive (threshold: 1.5; slope: 12; reaction time: fast; recovery time: slow; rate response: high). On 3/14, he turned sensor OFF and checked PM after brisk walk around the quad. Felt we should try that and see how it goes. Went home and felt better initially (no more heart in throat) but getting increasing waves of lightheadness/SOB/nausea when just walking on basically flat terrain or sometimes coming up stairs. Very tired after just 30 min. walk. Hoping to get somewhere with treadmill test. Which settings are most important to help with exertion? How can I finally get the PM set for me/my activity level???

3 Comments

PM settings

by TBrous&Chip - 2017-04-16 15:22:50

Many settings. I downloaded the manual and have tried to decipher terminology. Best advice given to me was to only allow one setting change per visit. Otherwise you will never know which settings helped

Max Rates

by BillH - 2017-04-16 20:29:31

Two settings that where not mentioned.

Maximum sensor rate (might have a different name). That is the maximum amount that the HR can get to when exercising. The other parameters that you mentioned are the how much activity is needed to starting increasing the HR and how fast it can increase it, but not how high.

The 2nd one is maximum tracking rate. Since you have a 2 chamber device there is the possiblility of at least some heart block where the ventrical does not fire after the atrium fires. In those cases the maximum tracking rate can limit how fast the ventricles beat.

Medtronic Dual chamber Pacemaker.

by Wspear35 - 2017-07-04 13:14:11

I am an 81 year old man that has run 35 years including 14 marathons. a few months back my resting HR of 38-40 bpm would continue all day. My Cardiologist said I had aflutter and sent me for Ablation which helped, but not good enough, so he had me implanted(ICD Medtronic) in February. The Daytime setting is 75 which I think Is to high since for 35 years my non resting HR was 50-55. I feel great just being a normal guy, but I happen to love running. Now when I try ro run, I have to walk after about a minute for a minute and go again..I feel like I did 35 years ago when, I first Began to run. When I ask my Cardiologist about settings, he does not seem interested since for most people my age they woul be happy to do what I can do, so why do you want to monkey with the settings. Seems a lot of Recipients of pacemackers who are athletic have similar experiences with their Doctors. I was doing better before the ICD. I had low HR, but never Passed out. any suggestion to get DR interested and to realize old runners are different than old Non Runners.