Available Pacemakers

I have been struggling for 16 years with a-fib and have reached the point where there is nothing more they can do for me. I’ve had 5 ablations and 19 cardioversions. I like to ride my bike, swim, maybe compete in Masters Swimming, and until 2 or 3 years ago, I competed in sprint triathlons. I’d love to get back into that and am wondering if there are pacemakers that will respond to exercise. My sinus node works fine, it’s just that other extraneous sources of electricity screw up my heart rhythms. Is there a pacemaker that can tap into the sinus node to make sure the atria and ventricles fire off at the right time? Or what are my options?

3 Comments

Hugh

by IAN MC - 2019-03-28 13:20:00

I am intrigued , what are the " extraneous sources of electricity which screw up your heart rhythms " and how do you know that is the case ??

That apart , the following thoughts occur to me :-

- there is growing evidence that long term endurance exercise can increase your chances of developing atrial fibrillation later in life . This MAY apply to you and is a far more likely explanation than extraneous electricity but worrying about the cause is pointless because you are where you are .

- you may have a misunderstanding of how pacemakers work. They have leads which are connected to either the upper or lower chambers of the heart ( or both ) and if the interval between heart contractions in either chamber is longer than the PM pre-setting then it generates a heart-beat via the lead. It is not a case of it tapping into a sinus node.

-  almost all pacemakers have a feature called " Rate response"  which can be turned on or off.  When turned on it will  increase your heart rate when you exercise if your heart doesn't do so.

- you have really been through the wars with all of your ablations and cardioversions and they must be running out of ideas.  I assume that you are now on anti-arrythmic drugs to help manage your afib . 

- the causes of your difficulty in exercising  are probably related to your afib or to the drugs and it is possible that you are experiencing exercise-induced afib ?  If that is the case, the pacemaker will do little to help BUT you do need to discuss your options with your doctor

Best of luck

Ian

 

 

What Ian said

by LondonAndy - 2019-03-30 08:19:59

Amen

Ectopic beats could be described as "extraneous sources of electricity"

by Gotrhythm - 2019-03-30 16:30:21

When you say "extraneous sources of electricity" I wonder if you are talking about ectopic beats?

Ectopic beats are beats that arise from fibers or bundles of fibers within the heart but outside the nodes (e.g. sinoatrial node and A-V node.) Ectopic beats could be called extraneous sources of electricity.

Ectopic beats are really rather common, since every part of the heart muscle is at least theoretically able to generate a beat, and rarely are they a cause for concern. Another name for ventricular ectopic beats or VeB is premature ventricular contraction. A premature ventricular contraction, PVC, is a contraction that happens a litle before it should.

I cannot say how a pacemaker would work in your specific case, but I can assure you that pacemakers can and do function in the presence of ectopic beats--all the time. Mine does, for sure. And all pacemakers can be programmed to respond to exercise.

What benefit you might recieve from a pacemaker is a discussion to have with your cardiologist.

If your cardiologist is not also an EP, electrophysiologist, you need to find one who is. There's more to having a pacemaker function well than just plugging it into your chest. You need a cardiologist who specializes in heart rhythm issues.

 

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