pacemaker mediated tachycardia

Hi,
I had my third pacemaker put in last year. Twenty-four years with 2 Medtronics, but my newest one is St. Jude's, if that matters. I have periodic hard and rapid heartbeats with my new pacemaker which my doctor thought was pacemaker mediated tachycardia. They tweaked the settings and it appeared to get better, but has returned recently with a vengence. I'm preparing for another office visit to have it interrogated and hopefully tweaked again, but was wondering if others had had similar issues? (And what did you do about it?)
Thanks!

3 Comments

PMT

by golden_snitch - 2009-10-17 03:10:43

Hi Paula!

Well, all that can be done is re-programming of the pacer, there isn't anything else. But there are a couple of possibilities to reprogramm as for example changing the mode in which the pacer operates. Most dual chamber pacers operate in a DDD mode, however, if you don't have sick sinus syndrome plus heart blocks, AAI or VVI would be ok, too. I guess what was already done was to prolong the PVARP time (postventricular atrial refractory period).

You can find a good article here:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/159645-overview

Haven't had this since I first had a pacer operating in AAIR and now have a pacer that switches from AAIR to DDIR when heart blocks occur. But pacer mediated tachycardia is a problem of pacers operating in DDD all the time.

Best wishes
Inga

Try this for one day....

by Christmmpace - 2009-10-17 04:10:57

One suggestion would be to make sure you called the 1-800 number St. Jude's list for their implantible devices. I would ask if they have any setting in the pacemaker that would cause your heart to race. I know with the medtronic that I have now, they had to turn off a few things to help with my heart. One other thing you could try is taking in less sugar or coffee just for a day. My heart was acting up so bad that I really thought it was the pacemaker, after a holter monitor test it showed my heart was beating extra and that it wasn't the pacemaker, so, I tried something different, I gave up drinking juice or soda. I tried not to eat foods with high level of sugar and I tell you it made the differences. Oh, one more thing I did, I was running about 5 miles a day, so I decided to just do some walking instead of jogging and it seems to have help my heart no have so many extra beats. I hope you try this, oh, one more thing. Tell your doctor to put you on a holter monitor to test if it's your heart or your pacemaker that's making your heart race. I hope this helps, please let me know how your doing. Take care, oh one more thing, I did pray too.:) God bless ya. Take care.

James

Atrial fib after pacemaker implant

by anette - 2009-10-19 10:10:47

I have got in this forum the answer from MAGSTER that MEDTRONIC COMP. recognise atrial fib as a common side effect after PM implant ;all my research after that only demonstrated that she was perfectly right.
WHY NOT MEDIATED TACHYCARDIA? Holter monitor could be a good idea.Keep us informed please!
Anette.

You know you're wired when...

You have a little piece of high-tech in your chest.

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