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Ejection Fraction/Pacemaker
I have a pacemaker/defibulator combination with a three wire lead. My EF prior to receiving the pacemaker/defibulator was 15-20. My question is how can you get an accurate echocardiogram if your heart is being pumped artifically with a pacemaker? If the pacemaker was not inside me would I still have the same EF that I have with the pacemaker implanted in me?
4 Comments
3-wire Pacemaker
by Terry - 2019-07-30 11:18:56
...and if that doesn't work, doctors switch on the cardiac conduction system for a normal, physiologic ventricular activation. See "Papers" page of <www.His-pacing.org> and scorll down to CRT.
Terry
fixed mine
by dwelch - 2019-08-06 03:11:57
a not uncommon problem with long term pacer use (depends on your leads, etc) is that since the ventrical is driven by a single lead on one side it is unnatural/uneven. so 15+ years later they start to do echos to look for the EF going down and eventualy switch to a three lead, so that they can separately pace each of the lower chambers and undo/smooth it out. was almost 30 years before they did this on me and the biventrical not only stopped the EF going down but brought it back up. But there is no guarantee, the EF drop can be for other reasons that the PM wont fix.
6 to 12 months after the three lead they should do another echo and see if the ef changed.
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Member Quotes
I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for pacemakers. I've had mine for 35+ years. I was fainting all of the time and had flat-lined also. I feel very blessed to live in this time of technology.
EF
by Gotrhythm - 2019-07-29 16:59:20
A pacemaker doesn't actually do the work of pumping. Think of it like a sump pump. You have the pump that's down in the water--that's your heart. And you have the pump switch that is above the water--that's your pacemaker. A pacemaker switches on the pumping action of the heart. If you have a three-lead pacemaker, you have one that is a very fancy switch. It times all the parts of the pump, to make the pumping more efficient.
A pacemaker is no barrier to an echo's accuracy. The echo is looking at the structures inside your heart. The fact that the pump is being switched on by an outside source makes no difference.
I'm not sure I understand the question about ejection fraction. The purpose of the CRT--three wires--is to help the lower chambers of the heart be more efficient. A lot of the time a CRT improves EF. Sometimes it doesn't. If an echo shows your EF is now better than 15-20%, rejoice!