Stents and HRM interference

I am a 63 year old man with over a hundred marathons completed along with 3 Hawaiian Ironman's. In 2013 I suffered a major heart attack and had a stent implanted. When I first started back running HRM's seemed to work ok. Now I don't seem to be able to get any to work at all other than an older Timex that sometimes works but no GPS. Can anyone help me so that I can continue to exercise safely. None of the doctors I ask think that the stent can interfere but I beg to differ. Doesn't anyone know if there is a specific brand or model that will work? There doesn't seem to be any info on stents in this forum. Help !!!!!

5 Comments

Hi John

by IAN MC - 2015-08-09 01:08:16

As you know a stent is a small mesh tube which is inserted into a clogged-up artery to increase the blood flow.

There is absolutely no way that a stent could interfere with a heart rate monitor , neither could an artificial hip, a wig, or a crown on one of your teeth. Only electrical things like pacemakers can interact with other electrical things like heart rate monitors.

Could it be that your pacemaker is causing the problems ? It is certainly not the stent.

I use a POLAR FT2 HRM when I run and it seems to work OK

Best of luck

Ian

dont have a pacemaker

by johnmixon - 2015-08-09 10:08:01

Ian , I have tried 10 different brands since the heart attack and I am very familiar with hrm's been using them since the 80's when they first came out. even the one timex with gps that I was using couldn't get a signal anymore. I have tried garmin and polar. nothing works maybe the strap needs gel or turning it or whatever but can't get a consistant reading, they work on other people in my household

doctor

by johnmixon - 2015-08-09 10:08:25

Are you a doctor ?

????

by IAN MC - 2015-08-10 06:08:50

John You've got me confused, you say on your bio that you have a Boston Scientific pacemaker .

Have you had it removed ?

Maybe you're right and the strap needs gel to make better contact ?

Ian

heart rate monitors

by Kluge - 2015-08-18 11:08:14

I also have been using heart rate monitors for many years. They always worked fine until I had a PM installed. Now I can not get a reading. I believe it is because of the way the work. The monitor does not count pulses, it measures intervals and calculates rate. If intervals are uneven it can't calculate the rate.

You know you're wired when...

You trust technology more than your heart.

Member Quotes

I just want to share about the quality of life after my pacemaker, and hopefully increase awareness that lifestyles do not have to be drastically modified just because we are pacemaker recipients.