How quickly does a Pacemaker react?

I'm wondering how much of a pause in my heart beat is needed for my pacemaker to respond? My pacemaker has been set to 60 beats per minute I'm told. So would it respond if my natural spacing between heart-beats is 1.1 sec, or 1.5 sec, or would it be a 2, 3, 4 second (or more) pause needed?

I'm asking because since my pacemaker was first fitted 7 weeks ago, I no longer have blackouts, but I do get brief (1 or 2 second) dizzy spells that clear up after a few seconds, So I'm wondering if the dizzy spell is caused by my heart pausing, and is lasting until the moment the pacemaker kicks in?

I am glad to have found this forum, because the UK medics I deal with all seem so busy and time pressed it feels hard to ask them questions!

5 Comments

Faster than...

by donr - 2018-03-15 08:53:36


...the blink of an eye!  It's measured in milliseconds. that's thousandths of a second.  Your PM is set to workm by monitoring the time between events.  If it is set to run at 60 beats per minute, that's one beat per second.  The PM monitors EVERY beat your heart makes by timing the distance between the start of beats.  BUT it is set not to send thew signal to cause a new beat at precisely one second, but a few thusandths later so that your heart will do as much of its work as possible.  The time is set by the Cardio & is stored in trhe PM's memory.  So - the PM watches the heart & at 1/60 of a second after the last beat it doesn't detect another beat - it waits a few thousandths of a second just in case the heart is a small bit late, then it sendds its own signal to make it beat, resets itself to tme the distance to the next beat.  The extra few milliseconds it waits is so short you cannot sense it.  It takes about 1/4 of a second for you to be able to sense a variance in time - that's 250 milliseconds.

Donr

Pauses in pm

by Heartfelt - 2018-03-15 09:01:01

Thanks for your post. My pm is also set to 60 bpm and it is working more than 90% of the time. Sometimes it flickers back and forth between 59 and 60 on my oxymeter, but I think my dizziness is associated with low bp (90/60).  

lickidy split

by zawodniak2 - 2018-03-15 14:49:07

As George Carlin would say; "Before you know it, sooner than you think and two shakes of a lambs tail"                                                                                 Enjoy your marvelous device!!

                                    Rodger

 

Fast response

by Theknotguy - 2018-03-15 23:50:18

As the guys indicate, the pacemaker reacts very quickly.  I've got a two lead unit and it was a really weird feeling when the ventricle lead kicked in the first time.  Was out walking with the dogs.  They were looking at me as if to say, "You are really weird!"  Ah well.  

Depending upon your heart problems you can still get dizzy spells and some really weird feelings at times.  You just take a big breath, wait a few seconds, then go on with your life. 

Hope everything else is going well for you.  
 

heart catherizition

by Arnold - 2018-03-22 19:58:42

I had a pacemaker inplanted in June 2016,I am having a heart cathrtization in April 5,2018.

I was wondering if it could be a problem.

You know you're wired when...

Your heart beats like a teenager in love.

Member Quotes

At age 20, I will be getting a pacemaker in few weeks along with an SA node ablation. This opportunity may change a five year prognosis into a normal life span! I look forward to being a little old lady with a wicked cane!