Santa is looking for a heart monitor...

Hello everybody! Hope everyone's in the holiday spirit :) I know I am. In fact, I finished most of my Christmas shopping early this year and left the best for last.

I wanted to get my friend a heart monitor watch. But what I thought would be relatively easy is turning out to be daunting task. I went to two places today, and the nicer models (all Polar) I was shown, come with the chest strap. My friend has an ICD (Medtronics) and I'm pretty sure we read somewhere that the chest strap is not recommended.

I'm stumped. I don't know what to do. The only watch I was shown without the chest strap was a Mio. Has anyone ever heard of this company? Does anyone have any advice? What should I get him? Anyone care to share any feedback about your experience with your heart monitor?

HELP!!! I am appealing to all my little elves on this site :) Christmas is right around the corner and if I don't get him the watch soon, I might as well go to the North pole and never come back!

14 Comments

Almost Daily

by COBradyBunch - 2009-12-16 11:12:54

I use a Polar with a chest strap almost daily with my BoSci 602 without an issue.

HR monitors

by ElectricFrank - 2009-12-17 01:12:39

With modern pacemakers there is very little chance a wireless chest strap will cause any problem.

The main thing to be concerned about is whether the monitor can handle the pacemaker. A pacemaker causes your ECG wave to be different and some HR monitors will do weird things like reporting double the actual HR. With so many folks having pacemakers these days I would suspect that the better manufacturers like Polar would have dealt with it by now. There is no way to actually tell in advance of trying it so be sure and have the option for him to exchange it.

frank

what Frank said

by Tracey_E - 2009-12-17 05:12:08

The straps are safe, but it may or may not work. I've tried Polar, Mio and every other brand I've been able to get my hands on. My pm interferes with the signal and they all tell me I have no hr.

No known interferance

by CaptainNimmo - 2009-12-17 09:12:15

I spoke to my Cardiologist today and enquired about using the HR monitor with chest strap. He got on to the phone to the Medtronics technician and they advised that it is safe to use.

He also question why would I want to monitor my heart rate? I could not give a convincing answer ;-(

I guess when the ICD or PM is monitoring the heart, let it do its job while one can focus on getting a good workout?

Heart Monitor

by donb - 2009-12-17 10:12:08

I have been using a Timex RSS210 for a numberof years, first with a Medtronic Enrthym PM and now with a St. Jude 5820. I use it for record keeping with my Cardiac Rehab program, a real help. It does an excellant job.
I also found with my last Cardiolite stress test that the Medtronic PM was not compatible with their heart monitor as the attending Dr. insisted (no treadmill) and used the Persantine drug for heart vessel dialation. I did not have this problem with my 2 prior PMs' as the same equipment in the same office was used. The cover statement made to me was "We don't do treadmill stress test with PMs' any longer". As a heart stent patient I don't look forward to my next test coming up soon and would rather do the treadmill instead of the drug induced headache. DonB

Cardiolite!!

by donb - 2009-12-17 10:12:58

Tracey, I should have explained that our Cardiolite stress test is done to check blood vessel condition of the heart, mainly blockages prior to stenting or bypass surgery. They inject radioactive dye and scan your heart from all angles which gives good indication of blood circulation of all parts of the heart.
Most older patients especially with knee or hip problems get the Persantine injection which dialates vessels without doing the treadmill. On my last test they did both the drug and slow treadmill. Reason being their monitor wouldn't snyc with my PM, it would read 60-120-60-120, couldn't make up it's mind.
I might also add that if their pictures show any area of the heart lacking circulation you'll be having a cardiac cath done as that's a more accurate test. In my case I had no symtoms other than a slight A-fib but I really had 95% blockage RCA, not good. A stent was installed during the test.

answers....

by Tracey_E - 2009-12-17 12:12:12

CaptainNimmo, I use one because when I push it working out, sometimes I get my atrial rate over the max of what the pm can pace my ventricle. I've never found one that works for me but that's why I want it, to tell me when to slow down. When I max out, I get dizzy and I'd love a hrm to tell me before it happens so I can slow down before I get symptomatic.

Don, I've only had stress tests on the treadmill. If the purpose of the stress test is to see if your rate goes up, it would be kind of pointless to do it on a pm patient since we know our rate is capable of going up. However, just because it goes up doesn't mean it's going up as it should. If we have problems working out, a lot of them can be diagnosed by watching us on a treadmill. It would show things like rate response not being programmed properly, an upper limit that's too low, a heart that suddenly drops off while working out.

Using MIO with a PM

by Pelelives - 2009-12-17 12:12:36

I am using a MIO Shape Elite but I only have a pacemaker. I have been tracking its heart rate measurement with another device I have and they seem to be running within 2-3 points of each other. There is not chest strap. I found it on Amazon for about $30 I think. And, yesterday at the Costco near us I saw the same brand for about the same $. Less functionality than mine but it had heart rate.

Comments

by ElectricFrank - 2009-12-18 11:12:06

Reason for monitoring HR:
If you exceed the paced upper limit during exercise the pacer will start causing skipped beats to maintain average HR at the upper limit. This is not only uncomfortable, but also limits cardiac output at a time when it is needed. The initial settings on a new pacemaker often have the paced upper limit set to 120, which is where mine was. Until I managed to push the issue and get mine set to 150, I used a HR monitor on walks to adjust my exercise level for a HR slightly below 120. Now it set at 150 I don't need it.

Tracey:
You aren't following proper cardiac protocol. When your HR indicates 0, you are supposed to fall over dead. G(:

frank

KMART-Sportline

by GMan - 2009-12-19 06:12:56

No straps...works fine! Was around $39. I still use it occasionally, but grew out of it.

Gary

Getting a good workout means monitoring your HR

by COBradyBunch - 2009-12-21 03:12:22

Besides being a guy with a pacemaker I am also a Certified (some say certifiable, but that is a whole other issue) Spin Instructor. I will tell you if you work out you should always be monitoring your heart rate to see how hard you are working, what your recovery time is like and to pace your workouts. Easy workouts should be between 60-70% of your max HR (more on this later). medium between 70 - 85% and HARD workouts over 85%. You should vary these intensities based upon a lot of factors including your health, fitness level, what you are training for and such. Your max HR is not that number you see in equations (220-age) but rather something you should only find with a trained person or in many of our cases in your docs office. It involves working out hard and to exhaustion (in other words, you can't push it any harder no matter how hard you try) and also requires the proper equipment (I have to find my max on a spin bike due to bad knees and a bad ankle so I can run as hard as I pedal).

Anyway, if your doc says 'Why would you want to monitor your HR' the guy is an IDIOT!!!!!! Get yourself a better doc who knows about Heart fitness, workout zones, recovery rates and such. He will almost surely tell you to get a HRM and use it every time you work out.

Garmin Forerunner 310XT

by realkarl - 2009-12-25 10:12:41

I received a Garmin Forerunner 310XT as a Christmas present - and now I am concerned whether the HRM function will work or not after I get my biventricular pacer in January...

I guess there's no way to know until I try, but if it won't work, I am not sure I will be able to return it :(

Mio band broke - now use Sportline

by okvol - 2009-12-30 12:12:32

I had a Mio pre-PM post-CABGx3. Worked good, but the band broke and was too custom to replace.

I've got a Nike brand strap too. Works a little funky when the PM is active, but when I get my rate up past the lower limit and the PM goes idel - it works fine.

garmin

by Brantfordmuscle - 2010-01-08 09:01:15

I had my pacer put in July/09. I'm a runner. I asked Garmin about wearing the HR belt and they said sure but it may pick up your pacer as a heart beat if it works during your workout. They said it's very unlikely it would affect your pacer but the pacer if working may affect the accuracy of the belt. I use my belt when I'm training and want to monitor improvement and make sure I don't go beyond my maximum HR. I recommend Garmin only because I have one and it works well with my pacer. My pacer generally only kicks in at night so I can't really comment on someone whose pacer is working all the time. Good luck with it.

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

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