All is well!

You were all right, everything is great! Leads are solid! The heavy feeling in my chest is my pacemaker working. Now that I know what it is it isn't scary. I just need to get used to it! The light fluttery 10-30 second racing is PVC's. I am going to quit smoking tomorrow. The number of them will most likely go down at that point. If they don't decrease & they continue to interfere we will think about beta blockers.

Here's the report:

Medtronic Adapta dual lead
Battery Life Left 7.5 years
Voltage/Impedance 2.80 V/100 ohms
Measured Threshold .375 V (atrial) >875 V (ventricular)
Programmed output 5.000 ( atrial & ventricular)

Parameter Summary
Mode DDD
Mode Switch On
Lower Rate 50 ppm
Upper Tracking Rate 140 ppm
Upper Sensor Rate 140 ppm
Max Increase to AV 170 ms
Paced AV 250 ms
Sensed AV 200 ms


Pacing (% of total)
AS-VS 78.2%
AS-VP 21.7%
AP-VS <0.1%
AP-VP <0.1%
Search AV+ On
PVC singles 2,785
PVC runs 175
PAC runs 0

5 Comments

electric frank

by sam78 - 2010-03-13 02:03:19

we have been having issues and have my pacemaker interregated 3 times in 3 days. I have both reports. I was wonder if myabe we could set a time to meet on here and go over my report. I have some understanding of some pieces and what they means.. but there are other that I do not. would you willing to do that Frank???

you guys rock!

by JessiWay - 2010-03-13 02:03:19

Wow! You guys are great, the doctor said he was going to change it in 4 weeks. He said he wants to wait until it has been 6 weeks. (not sure why) You are fully on top of things, it blows my mind how much some of you know!
Thanks a ton, Frank!

Looks good

by ElectricFrank - 2010-03-13 02:03:58

One thing that needs to be attended to soon. The measured thresholds of .375 and .875 V are the amount of pacing voltages required to stimulate your atrium and ventricles to contract. The Programmed output of 5.000V is way too much. The usual programmed voltage is 2.5 times the measured threshold to allow a safety margin. The 5.000V setting is what the pacer is set at when it leaves the factory and is intended to be programmed very soon after implant. The problem is that the doctors often just let it be until a 3 month checkup.

Having the ventricular output set so high has at least two potential problems. The most certain is a reduced battery life. The other is that the higher voltage is irritating to the heart tissue and I have found that it can cause increased PVC's ( the cardiologist disagrees with me on this).

By the way the AS-VP is atrial sensed-ventricle paced and is the only pacing you are getting. At 21.7% you are doing well.

best of luck with your new friend,

frank

congratulations!

by sherida - 2010-03-13 06:03:35

... with your new 'supporting partner'!
The output voltage of 5V is quite high, with such good thresholds 3V is enough for those first months.
The reason why these voltages are not directly decreased to the lowest possible/safe value, is that in the first few weeks after implantation thresholds may increase and afterwards decrease again to normal range. That is because the hearttissue is recovering around the tip of the lead, especially in active (screwed) leads. This is a normal proces. When thresholds are stable again, the output voltage can be decreased to 2 time voltage threshold (with atrial min of 2V, and ventricilar min of 2,5V) and 3 times pulswidth (which is usualy 0,4ms).

As the pm is in DDD mode (not DDDR, because there is good sinusnode function) the value of Upper Sensor Rate don't mean anything, because the sensor is off and you don't need it.
Depending on your age Upper Tracking Rate may be increased.

Wishing you all the best
Sherida

Great!

by heartu - 2010-03-13 11:03:23

Glad to hear all is well.

You know you're wired when...

Your favorite poem is “Ode to a Cardiac Node”.

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A properly implanted and adjusted pacemaker will not even be noticeable after you get over the surgery.