Pacemaker not recording events?

I have had a Boston Scientific pm since 2013. I also have a remote device that reads my pm and sends the info to my EP. I have had episodic A-fib about 5-6 times a year since 2004.(I do not have a defibrillator, only a pm.) A month ago I went into A-fib which seemed different from previous event with extremely heavy heartbeats, so I paid a visit to ER. They checked me over, did blood work and the ER doc said yes, you have A-fib, but everything else was ok.

I called my EPs office the next day and, after reading my remote report, was told I didn't have A-fib. I kind of got into an argument with the person that checked the report but she was adamant, that I hadn't had A-fib and told me my pm was working perfectly and no A-fib had been recorded. My pm interrogation a year ago showed I had 5 more years of battery and I only experienced A-fib 1 percent.

Is it possible that my pm didn't record the A-fib event? And, has anyone else experienced it. 

Thank you in advance for your responce.

Normalou


2 Comments

hmmmm

by Tracey_E - 2019-02-11 17:25:53

If the pacer is set to record afib, then it should have recorded it. Can your ep get a copy of the records from the ER? I'd want to talk to the doctor, not whichever underling read the report and called you. If you are having more afib, it needs to be treated. 

Pacemaker not recording

by AgentX86 - 2019-02-11 22:41:31

It surprises me a little that your pacemaker didn't record Afib, if that's what it was (ERs aren't great at differentiating arrhythmias).  That said, pacemakers aren't as adept at recording events as most believe.  They're not event recorders. 

I had an AV ablation for atypical flutter and pacemaker implanted a year ago.  I've been having some arrhythmia that the pacemaker couldn't pick up (can't be Afib, obviously).  I had to catch it in the act and upload the data while I was in the arrhythmia.  Turns out it was PVC Bigeminy but the PM can't detect Bigeminy because the recording trigger can only be set as low as four PVCs, so it takes at least that many for the PM to record what's happening.  It doesn't even record that I had any PVCs or the PVC burden.

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