pacemaker

If a pacemaker with intermittent faults - eg intermittent spurious pulses, mark space ratio variation, amplitude variation etc and / or intermittent lead problems - is it possible that this could  trigger atrial fibrillation and other heart beat irregularities.


4 Comments

Pacemaker failure

by AgentX86 - 2019-07-25 08:40:55

First,  that's a mighty big if. Have you ever heard of such a failure? Second, there is no mark/space ratio. A pacemaker delivers an impulse to the heart, starting the avalanche that becomes a heartbeat.

No, it cannot cause Afib. That's a very specific symptom and it wouldn't cause harm if it did. VT and Vfib are more worrisome and I suppose they could be triggered be rapid ventricular pulsing. But hey, as long as you're dreaming up ways to die, it could just stop. Some of us are dependent and a stopped clock wouldn't be good. In the meantime,  watch out for that bus!

failure

by Tracey_E - 2019-07-25 09:07:12

Pacer failure is virtually unheard of. If leads are bad, it will show up in the interrogation report.

Hearts occasionally doing crazy things? That happens all the time. That's how all of us got here ;o)

confused

by ROBO Pop - 2019-07-25 21:41:08

You are confusing terms. What I think your are talking about is FAR. That's Floor Area Ratio which simply is the size a floor needs to be as a ratio to the rate of Atrial Fibrillation to assure you hit the foor if you faint.

Just when I thought I'd heard it all...thanks I needed a good laugh after the US Congressional hearings. They didn't make any sense either.

Can pacing cause atrial fibrillation?

by Selwyn - 2019-07-26 07:11:49

There are so many if's in life... Here is another: If pacemakers were so unsafe why are there so many people walking around with them?

If you really want to have anxiety, just keep creating if's.

Studies have found no association between atrial pacing and the onset of atrial fibrillation ( atrial fibrillation starts around the pulmonary vein area - this is not an area/ side of the heart where a pacemaker lead is located) 

https://academic.oup.com/europace/article/16/2/241/525290

 

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