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a-vib
I just moved and just had a ck-up and tech turned off my top lead she said due to 100% a-vib I have the new vistia icd and was told that the 3 leads and this new unit can help control the avib and heart rate I am worried that the top of my heart is now with out control or and help by the icd I went through the side of my heart to get the 3rd lead in just for them to shout it off? and really worried that now 4 years later still in avib and no controlling it or even why I have it? I am in the Memphis area and thought I found a good dr. but now I am questioning this group? can and one help with same problems ella
3 Comments
Surprised
by Theknotguy - 2014-11-16 09:11:59
Surprised your doctor hasn't discussed afib with you. Per your profile you have a Medtronic.
I have the Medtronic Advisa DR MRI SureScan. It has a software feature called APP (Atrial Preference Pacing).
I have afib sessions that start and go anywhere from four to 24 hours at a time. Most of the time they are what I call "benign". I'll have the rapid heartbeat and be short of breath but they don't totally incapacitate me. I have had sessions of afib with RVR (Rapid Ventricular Response) with necessitate an emergency run to the hospital. I've had to change my medications to take care of the RVR sessions.
Atrial Preference Pacing sets up a counter beat that helps reduce the effects of afib. I had mine turned on in May of 2014. At the time the doctor said the jury was still out on the effects of APP but it wouldn't hurt to turn it on.
Counter beat is not an exact medical term for what the APP does. However it feels like I have three heartbeats when APP is working. It's a really weird feeling. However it feels better than when I had to put up with the afib sessions without the PM.
Since May there has been a noticeable reduction in my afib sessions. I could see the changes on my last PM report both in the graphical information and in the numerical reports. It wasn't a huge change but it was noticeable.
Since my APP was turned on, Medtronics has released a report saying that APP does help. You have to take the report with a grain of salt because it was conducted by Medtronics. I haven't been able to find the report - it may have only been released to doctors.
I don't know if APP will be of help to you. Obviously I'm not medically qualified to make such a prediction. But it would be worth your while to have a discussion with your EP or cardiologist.
I hope you can get some help soon.
Afib & CRT
by golden_snitch - 2014-11-17 02:11:12
Hi!
If you are in permanent atrial fibrillation (afib), the top (atrial) lead of the pacemaker is inhibited from functioning due to the arrhythmia, so one can as well just switch it off. The Afib simply overdrives the rhythm that the pacing lead can set, because afib is much faster. So, during Afib the pacing lead in the atrium kind of sits there and watches, it cannot do anything. Therefore, the tech was right to turn it off, especially if you are in Afib all the time.
What Theknotguy described, APP, won't work in someone with permanent Afib. If it works at all, it can reduce Afib episodes in someone who is having them every now and then, but it cannot pace someone, who is in Afib all the time, out of this arrhythmia.
A bi-ventricular pacemaker (also called CRT, three leads) is usually put in when someone suffers from heart failure. There are some patients whose heart weakens because the ventricles (lower chambers) do not beat insync. Because the CRT stimulates both ventricles, it makes them beat insync and thereby they pump more efficiently. Even with the atrial lead switched off, this resynchronisation of the ventricles still works, because for that you only need the two ventricular leads.
Heart failure and Afib have to do with one another: When the ventricles weaken, the atria have to compensate for that, and when the atria pump harder, they enlarge. This enlargement of the atria is known to cause Afib. Also, someone who is in Afib all the time, has no "atrial kick" (pumping of the atria). Normally, the ventricles can compensate for that, and the EF (ejection fraction = how much blood the ventricles pump) does not drop or drops very little. But in someone whose heart is already a bit weak, and who in addition has no atrial kick, this weakening of the heart can worsen even more. A bi-ventricular pacemaker might be able to stop this worsening. But why exactly you go the bi-ventricular is something you need to ask your doctor.
The lead that has been put in through the side is probably an epicardial lead for the left ventricle. The left ventricular lead is a little bit difficult to place; it usually goes into the coronary sinus, a big vein that runs across the left ventricle. When doctors have problems placing it, they sometimes chose to put in an epicardial lead instead. I have never heard that in a CRT device the atrial lead was put in epicardially, and the ventricular leads were put in through a vein. I really think that it's your left ventricular lead that's epicardial, and so this is not the one that they switched off.
Inga
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A-vib??
by kmom - 2014-11-16 08:11:21
Or did you mean afib?? Haven't heard of the other but there are many on here battling afib including myself at times.