Does every candidate for pacemaker have all these tests?

Hello Jereems

by NiceNiecey - 2019-02-05 02:43:40

Welcome to our 'Specialty Club'!

In a word . . . NO everyone does NOT have all those tests.

I'm the resident nag about filling in your profile so I'd like to encourage you to do that ASAP. It will give your fellow pacers more information by which to help you.

I had some of those tests after I got my pacemaker. What were your symptoms? Do you have other conditions that made your doctors suspect something else? How old are you?

I'm not positive I had a chest x-ray but I definitely had an EKG; that's it. The EKG told them all they needed to know and the next morning I got my first PM. It was Christmas Eve 5 years ago and I was 55 at the time. 

Hope this helps.

Niecey

nope

by Tracey_E - 2019-02-05 09:35:22

I've had ekg, stress test, echo, xray and Holter. That's it, and I was diagnosed in 1970 so I've been through more than a few cardiologists and surgeries. Sometimes it's warranted if you have symptoms they can't pinpoint but sometimes they just go a little overboard trying to find out why it happened, which for most of us we never know how it happened. It's ok to question why they are doing a test, and to say no. 

no

by dwelch - 2019-02-12 04:02:07

A few seconds on an EKG was all it took to see my problem. 

They didnt have nor use MRI's when I got mine.  I did have an echo but that tech was also nothing like what you see today.  didnt wear a holter until after the pacer so we could tune it, something you dont need to do today either the tech is better.  did do a stress test before the pacer.  been getting echos for a long time after the pacer.  my stress tests now are the chemical kind not the treadmill kind.  have only had lets say two total I think one before one decades later. no tilt table, chest xray after, and later for other unrelated reasons.   no heart cath.

Again a few seconds of EKG told them everything they needed to know for me.

Does every candidate for pacemaker have all these tests?

by Jereems - 2019-02-12 08:07:42

Thanks, Dwelch. 

EKG is amazing. I had no idea it was so informative. I suspect non-ischemic muscle damage makes the outcome less predictable. Hence all the fact finding. 

all these tests

by Weezie69 - 2019-05-28 18:31:03

no. A tilt table test is used to test for Neurally Mediated Hypotension.  I have it, and had the tilt table test at Johns Hopkins in the 1990s.  An EKG was used last year to diagnose complete heart block and SSS leading to immediate PM implant.

Thanks Weezie69.

by Jereems - 2019-05-28 21:34:53

For most patients these devices are implanted in more or less emergency situations.

My symptoms were not immediately so demanding. Many and various readings, often tolerably normal, old heart attacks that did not seem to call for beta-blockers etc. 

The cardiologist was sending me home from ER, but at last minute came in and said: looking at the history I find it “more interesting” than ... and he sent me to the central hospital. 

He knew already what he wanted to happen, but it took several months before it all crystallized into decision. 

I hope you are doing well.