how often the Pacemaker works

Went to the doctor today for my 9 month check up. i have a 2 leed Pacemaker for Syncope. i found out that the upper leed works 8 percent of the time and the lower part of the heart 1 percent. can someone in simple terms explain this to me.

2 Comments

Pacing percentage

by AgentX86 - 2021-04-28 22:08:14

Do you know why you have a pacemaker?  You said for syncope but that's  symptom rather than a diagnosis.  I would asume that you have "Sick Sinus Syndrome" (SSS) but it could be a number of reasons.  SSS is just one of the most common, with these sorts of pacing percentages.

Sure, it's rather simple really.  The pacing percentage is the number of beats the pacemaker paces the heart divided by the total number of beats.  In your case, the "upper" (Atrial) lead is active eight out of every 100 beats.  Your heart beats the other 92 naturally.  This in no way means you don't need a pacemaker.  If your heart beat normally for an hour and then your pacemaker took over for five minutes (about 8% of the time), you'd not be in good shape.

The lower chamber (ventricle) percentage tells how many heartbeats get dropped between the atria (upper chambers) and ventricles (lower chambers).  At these numbers, this doesn't mean a lot.  It's likely the delay is set so the heart doesn't have time to respond on its own.  It probably would have if given the chance.

This pacing percentage can vary a lot based on how your doctor has it set up.  If your pacemaker is set to beat slower, there is more time between beats and more of  a chance the heart will beat on its own.  If it's set faster, the pacing pecentage tends to go up.

 

Percent is how much it’s working

by PacedNRunning - 2021-04-29 02:52:34

The pacing percent is how often the pacemaker is pacing the heart. Could be unnecessary pacing if you don't need it but at 8%, and your not experiencing syncope then it's worth it.  Doesn't matter how much it paces, it how safe it's keeping you. That 8% can be a big deal if you pass out and cause a brain bleed or break bones.

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It is just over 10 years since a dual lead device was implanted for complete heart block. It has worked perfectly and I have traveled well near two million miles internationally since then.