Neurocardiogenic Syncope

I have made several posts recently regarding problems that I have been experiancing since I received my pacemaker. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who commented and gave me advice about my situation.

I saw my doctor on Friday, and she repeated another tilt-table test. It revealed that even with all of the medicine that I am on, my blood pressure is still dropping very low and my heart rate drops almost 50 bpm in a single beat. The pacemaker is keeping me from fainting and losing consciousness, but I am still blacking out due to the low blood pressure. I have been put on another medication...Midodrine...to try and control it.

I know there are others of you who suffer from Neurocardiogenic Syncope. I just found out that this was my diagnosis about 9 weeks ago. Is there any insight that any of you could give me? Are your pacemakers set at a certain rate that helps catch the drop sooner? Like I said, I am new to this whole thing, and I am just trying to learn as much as I can about my condition.

Thanks,
Amanda

4 Comments

The dreadful NCS!

by ela-girl - 2008-02-03 08:02:46

Man oh man. NCS can just be a pain! I know! And even with the pm, you can still have the symptoms of NCS that you were having before. For me, the pm totally took away my symptoms and I have been great ever since--thank the good Lord! Some things you can try...a higher salt content in your diet, compression stockings, drinking sports drinks like Propel to keep electrolytes up....sometimes people are put on beta-blockers for their beta-blocking effects in order to help their heart not contract so hard when the chambers are not full....my pm isn't set any one way to help the NCS...my low rate is 60 and obviously the pm helps keep the heart rate up when it drops so I can't blackout because of the bradycardia. I know some of our other NCS people have settings where the pm will speed their heart rate up and then slowly drop it over 2 minutes. I'm sure someone else will be along to share their experience... Do you know you are going to blackout before you do???

What is Midodrine? Is it a med to bring up your BP or is it a beta-blocker? I'll be waiting for your info on that and do some research in the meantime... And what do you mean by "catch the drop sooner...? Are you referring to heart rate or BP?

Don't get discouraged...we're here for you!
ela-girl

Yes it is dreadful

by bowlrbob - 2008-02-03 09:02:44

Ela was talking about me. Mine is set at 70 bpm all the time for Bradycardia. Then my EP turned on the rate drop response feature. When my heart rate goes down 25 points quickly the pacer kicks my heart rate up to 100 bpm for 2 minutes. This keeps the blood pressure up and I don't get dizzy or blackout anymore. This has worked for 1 and 1/2 years with no extra medicine. I do take atenolol 25 for high blood pressure that's all. Most of the new pacers have this feature ask your doc. it might help you. It has done wonders for me. I have about 800 of those rate drop episodes in a six month period. I only feel about 10 because the heart speeds up and I get a little out of breath. Bowlrbob

Inflatable stockings

by ElectricFrank - 2008-02-04 02:02:38

This is just an idea! Military pilots use full length stockings that inflate when they are pulling high G's in their aircraft. The socks prevent blood from pooling in the legs and depriving the brain, which causes blackouts. The NCS problem is very similar in origin. I wonder if the medical equipment people have looked into something like this for those with serious NCS. Pretty soon we will all be walking ICU's.
Bob's suggestion on using the rate drop response option in your pacer is a good one.

check this on the net

by bowlrbob - 2008-02-04 12:02:10

I went online and typed in pacemaker rate drop response in the yahoo search engine. Just to see what I would get. There are several articles mentioning tha for some people the rate drop response works. Just thought you would like to look it up for yourself.
I never had to because my EP is the one who came up with this for me. After my first blackout after getting my pacer. I have had no blackouts since. BOB

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