New device woes continue

I really miss my old device. I've had my replacement for a little over 2 months and I'm still having issues. I posted a while ago about issues with low heart rate below the threshold that the pm was set to. Still having 2-3 days a week that my heart rate drops down to 30bpm, but never did it when I was around the EP and the PM wasn't registering any issues. Thankfully after the last visit my EP ordered an event monitor to get some stats. So now that they see some of the issues I have to go back to meet with the EP and a tech from Medtronic tomorrow. EP seems to think my device is "over-sensing" or a potential issue with the ventricle lead. Anyone have issues with "over-sensing" and/or what it means.
Didn't have issues like this with my last device, and to make matters more irritating I still have discomfort in the area of the new implant which is limiting my golf game.
Wish me luck for tomorrow that they can simply adjust the programming and I won't need any additional leads or replacements.

2 Comments

Over Sensing

by IAN MC - 2015-05-07 01:05:30

Hi Wolf Frustrating story especially if it is affecting your golf :)

You ask about "over-sensing " . As you know "sensing" basically means that your PM detects heart-beats and then decides whether to put in extra heart-beats or just sit and watch. This would be very simple if the only electrical activity it detects is from the heart . Unfortunately the PM lead often detects electrical signals from elsewhere.

As well as electricity from the heart, it detects electrical signals generated by other muscles. Just like the heart, other muscles produce electrical signals when they contract . Add this electricity to signals coming from electrical gadgets on the outside and it may fool the PM into thinking that you are producing heart beats when you are not ; that is "over-sensing" . This could lead to periods when your HR drops to 30 bpm , but the PM thinks your HR is higher because it is over-sensing.

Fortunately it is easily remedied by a settings change.

I hope it is that rather than lead problems !

Best of luck for tomorrow; let us know how you get on.

Ian

Still not working

by Wolf - 2015-05-07 10:05:10

Good news is the three EPs that I seen today all agree that there is no issue with any of my leads. Unfortunately they still aren't sure what to do about the low heart rate. Said that the PM isn't able to to pick up the P-wave and attempted to make adjustments for nearly 2 hours. Felt pretty important to have that many Drs trying to figure it out. Thought they fixed it- felt pretty good for the following 6 hours but just started to feel the low heart rate again which is making me cranky. Will call the EP again tomorrow to see what is next. Maybe they'll try to get a few more Drs in the room to figure it out.

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