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ICD Alarms
Hi everybody,
I had my ICD (Medtronics Concerto) implanted in India in April 2008. After a few months, on returning to Dubai where I work, one morning I heard a sort of chiming sound. Though I looked around, I could not find the origin of the chime. The same repeated for a couple more days, every morning at the same time. On the third day whjile desperately looking for the source of the sound, I suddenly remembered my doctor telling me about the built-in alarm system in the ICD. The chime type of alarm was an indication of a possible minor problem with the heart. I was put on 40mg of Lasix for 10 days, the the sound stopped after a few days. On interrogation of the device, it was revealed that there was fluid accumulation in the heart. It was July the the temperature and humidity level in Dubai was pretty high.
There was a repeat of the chime two weeks ago. The temperature here is 42 to 46C these days and the humidity is pretty high as well. One week of Lasix worked again!
My question is, do weather conditions have any impact on the ICD? Thank you.
Bob
3 Comments
Weather & Pacemaker
by SMITTY - 2009-07-23 12:07:38
Hello Bob,
To answer your question do weather conditions have any impact on the ICD my answer is no, if you are talking about ability to function as it should. Because of its location the internals of your pacemaker will not see more than a degree or two temp change, regardless of what the outside temperature and/or humidity does. Also, if you have an on demand pacemaker the high ambient temperatures may actually cause your pacemaker to work less as the high temperature will increase your natural heart rate thereby causing it to require less help from your pacemaker.
As for the need for a diuretic when the temperature goes up my guess is that could be caused by congestive heart failure. However, that is strictly my guess so Ill not comment further. It is something you may want to ask your doctor.
I will comment a little further on what the high temperature does to the body and why it makes your heart work harder. Our body has an internal thermostat that is set at 98.6 degrees, give or take a couple of degrees. As ambient temp increases the body temp tries to follow suit and the heart will shift to a higher rate as blood flow serves as an internal cooling system. So the higher the temp goes the faster the heart may beat in an effort to increase the blood flow. In addition, with a higher temp we start to sweat more since the evaporation of sweat on the surface of the skin helps lower or control body temp.
The result of the sweating make it seem as if our diuretic is not working as well but that is not necessarily so. The more we sweat the less urine we will produce. I know I have been guilty of thinking my Lasix was not doing much when in fact I lost more fluid through sweating than I would have through urination.
Sweating when the humidity is high can be a two edged sword of which we have to be aware. Since the higher the temp the less evaporation of the sweat we will get, therefore the less body cooling we accomplish through sweating. This become somewhat like the dog chasing its tail. The hotter we get the more we sweat but due to the lower evaporation rate the less cooling we get from the sweating so the more we sweat. This is when serious dehydration can occur.
My opinion is that the body is one of the most complex and finest tuned chemical plants on earth. Mother Nature tries to keep everything headed in the same direction but with all the different processes going on at the smae time in our body, we have to be aware of changes when we are exposed to what can be a hazardous environment. And I think temps of 42 to 46C (108 to 115F) are hazardous tomost of us.
Smitty
hummm
by walkerd - 2009-07-24 06:07:05
I have a concerto didnt know it had an alarm system on it.
Dave
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weather and the heart
by kcruz - 2009-07-23 09:07:09
Yes weather can play a factor with the heart. I myself have found this to be true as well, and my physician has had to adjust my lasix also. It actually makes quite a bit of sense if you think about it. When the heat and humidity is high the air is "thicker" making it harder to breath for asthmatics and as for heart patients, well it also makes the heart work harder. If you have a weakened heart the extra stress can lead to your engine not being able to keep up with demand hence leading to some extra fluid back up.