lead sensitivity

Does anybody know anything about lead sensitivity? The EP said something about lead sensitivity changing from time to time , I don’t understand what they mean if the leads are firmly attached to the heart wall how can the way the PM senses the leads change? Has anyone noticed a change on there print outs from interrogration to interrogation...

2 Comments

Lead Senstivity

by SMITTY - 2009-06-03 07:06:19

Hello De-Blessed,

With words in the English sometimes meaning different things to different people I can only guess at what the good doctor was talking about. That guess is he was referring to the lead impedance or resistance. There is a sensitivity setting on our PM but from I can see on my PM checkup printouts this is something that is adjustable by the doctor. I can find not reason to think this would change from time to time unless the Dr. thought it was necessary for whatever reason. Of course the sensitivity may need to be adjusted up or down over the life of a PM, but to me those changes would not be what the Dr. was talking about. I looked at some of my printouts and from April '08 until Sept '09 the sensitivity readings have remained the same on my PM. That readings are 0.5 mV for atrial lead and 2.8 mV for the ventricular lead.

But we don't have to guess because we have a resident expert on pacemakers by the name of Electric Frank and I hope he sees this because he can explain.

As for the impedance or as I like to call it resistance, I can see how that can change with no outside input. My definition of impedance is that it is the measurement of the freedom to flow by an electrical current. In this case this would be the electrical impulse generated by the PM. This can change due to aging of the leads, degradation of the connection of the lead to the PM or due to the build up of minute deposits around the lead tips where they contact the heart wall.

Interesting question. I hope you can get the doctor to expand on his use of the word a little. Also, I'll be interested in the replies you get on this.

Good luck,

Smitty

Thanks so much Smitty

by de-blessed - 2009-06-04 11:06:41

I understood your explanation better than the doctors and that sounds like what the doc was saying I think. My atrial is 0.5 too and ventricular is around the same as yours i'm not looking at the paper so i can't quote the exact # but it's 2. something. My next appointment isn't until Nov. so I won't speak with the doc until then unless something happens LORD forbide. Anyway thanks Smitty very helpful.............Anybody else with any input?

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