Unilateral/Bipolar

Can anyone explain what the difference is between the unilateral and bipolar readings from a pacemaker? I don't know if they work together or separate. I'm new to the lingo of Pacemakers.

5 Comments

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by Tracey_E - 2014-01-07 05:01:07

I'm not sure about unilateral but unipolar and bipolar are modes for the leads, it would be one or the other. Once upon a time they were unipolar but now all are bipolar. I was in unipolar mode for a stress test once, did NOT like it. Every beat felt like a little shock. I don't even remember why it was done that way, just that it felt awful.

Here are two articles explaining the difference.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-94-011-0872-0_20

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-8159.1991.tb02887.x/abstract

pacemaker

by wesh75455 - 2014-01-08 04:01:14

mmmmmm That's interesting because this pacemaker was just installed in November. When a check up was done to make sure the readings were ok, that's when the unilateral and bipolar things were mentioned. All in all I don't think someone knew what they were talking about. They couldn't tell me if they even received the first report. One said yes, the pacemaker was working fine another said that you have to have readings from both the unilateral and bipolar to get readings. When asked about the reading, it couldn't be found. So, how did they know one of the leads had come undone? I think I better go to your suggested articles and do some more research for my own benefit. Thanks for your input.

leads

by Tracey_E - 2014-01-08 06:01:52

They can tell right away when they run the report if a lead is not working or something has changed since the last check. I don't understand what they were talking about, sorry. I've never felt the sensation during checks that I did the day I know for sure it was temporarily set to unipolar.

Pacemaker

by wesh75455 - 2014-01-10 12:01:17

What is unipolar pacing? After having a pacemaker installed TWICE, you would think a person would feel great from what I hear from others. Instead feeling worse, tired and depressed.

Unipolar/Bipolar circuits

by Selwyn - 2014-01-10 12:01:41

Unilateral means one side. 2 sides is bilateral.
Unipolar means one pole, bipolar is 2 poles.

A pole is a current origin or exit ( so a battery has 2 poles, one positive, one negative)

Unipolar pacing the circuit is through the conducting lead and out into the body to return to the PM case.

Bipolar the circuit is through the conducting lead and back out into the return conductor of that lead.

My PM is 4 years old now- it was set up initially with unipolar stimulation- I had a muscle twitch of the left side of the chest ( most uncomfortable). I told the electrophysiologist about this and he just switched me over to bipolar pacing. As soon as he flicked the switch my muscle twitching just stopped ( I was still laying on the couch).

The other thing of note was that my ECG chest monitor does not now show big PM spikes on the read out as all the electrical circuit is within the heart ( around the +ve and -ve part of the tip of the pacing lead).

Beware of unipolar pacing and muscle twitching!

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