Garmin Heart Monitor Interference

Any one had problems using Garmin Heart Monitor.
I am a Marathon Runner and had a PM implant last week. Today I used my Garmin Forerunner 305 Heart Monitor for the first time since the implant. The readings recording are erratic and often intermittent. I had used it often pre-op without a problem and confirmed it is still working ok when my wife used it.

My PM is a Medtronic Kappa 703 dual chamber device.

Can any one recommend a HRM that will work ok with this PM?

11 Comments

frustrating

by Tracey_E - 2008-11-05 03:11:21

My pm is St Judes and I've been through 4 or 5 brands now looking for one that will work for me. If you search the archives here, you can find comments from others on what works for them and what doesn't.

Two things keep them from working accurately- your pm can interfere with it's transmission and the monitor will read nothing (that's what happens to me) or it will pick up your heart beats as well as the pm spikes so the number will be way off.

Good luck finding one! I am still searching (unhappy sigh)

Suggestion

by ElectricFrank - 2008-11-06 12:11:35

You might try a HR monitor that uses a finger sensor with a light source in it (similar to the Pulse Oximeter that is used in the hospital). A pacemaker can produce a distorted ECG signal that confuses the the monitor.

Another problem caan be caused by the pacemaker settings. There is an upper pacing limit that is set when it is programmed. If your exercise rate reaches the upper limit the pace starts skipping beats to hold the average in range. Particularly with a new implant they tend to set the limit way too low. They had my upper limit set to 120. The more you push it after reaching the limit the more erratic your actual heart beat becomes. I had to get downright pushy to get them to set mine up to 150. (I'm 78).

I suggest contacting the doctors office and ask for a printout of the settings. This will tell you what your limit is.

The blood pulse monitor picks up the actual pulsating blood in your finger so isn't bothered by the pacemaker. The only problem with these is they tend to be sensitive to bouncing along while running.

One other suggestion is to experiment with the electrode placements on your chest. Some locations give cleaner signals than others.

Hope this helps.

frank

Possible Garmin fix

by meisel - 2008-11-11 10:11:14

I have a St. Jude ICD which also paces. Use the Garmin 305 with few problems. I did have some troubles getting an HR read. The unit was about a year old, I called Garmin & explained that I had put a fresh battery in the chest belt & still wasn't getting an HR reading. Garmin sent a new belt & I generally have no problems - it still won't do an HR read once a month or so for no apparent reason. The Garmin instruction book did suggest wearing the belt across your back instead of on your chest as a possible solution to a no-HR-reading problem.

Get them to send you another belt

by chazzf - 2008-11-14 06:11:40

Agree with comment re: another belt. I've had 2 and no problems (had a Garmin 301 and now have a 305). I've run a few marathons and ultras with mine---no problem. Had my pacemaker implanted 2002.

Good News - I've got a fix!

by Garry - 2008-11-17 08:11:33

Polar Heart Monitor tried and works great with my Medtronic PM.

Found a great research report in Netherland Heart Journal which confirmed Polar as a suitable device.

Title: - Pacemaker safety and long-distance running
J.H. Bennekers, R. van Mechelen, and A. Meijer

Objective : -
To prove that long-distance running is safe for athletes with pacemaker devices, pacemaker function was evaluated in nine long-distance runners.

Link :- http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2497157

I have emailed Garmin and so far no reply!

Thanks for the feedback - Garry

My Polar S710 works, Garmin Forerunner 405 does'nt

by steve905 - 2008-11-23 06:11:04

My Polar S710 works adequately in most situations very occasionally getting super high readings and sometimes losing pickup. However, I have not been able to get the Garmin 405Forerunner HRM to work at all and also have recieved no feedback from Garmin.

Digital vs Analogue chest sensors

by Garry - 2008-12-18 05:12:51

In UK I dealt with Heart Rate Monitor Shop
( www.heartratemonitor.co.uk) who's telephone help line servoice was great ........ what I have found is that chest sensors that are digital (e.g. Garmin & latest Polar 800 series using Polar WearLink® transmitter W.I.N.D) suffer from interfrence by my pacemaker (Medtronic) but analogue chest sensors devices used my most Polar monitors (in my case I now have a 400 series) work without a problem. I suggest talk to someone and borrow a Polar sensor to test it out with your PM.

garmin

by Brantfordmuscle - 2009-11-19 09:11:44

I recently had a pacer installed and my garmin 405 works fine with it. I emailed garmin and asked if the hr monitor would interfere with the pacer and was told it wouldn't. They said the pacer might interfere with the hr monitor as it might pick up a pace for a heart beat and get confused. My pacer doesn't kick in that often so that's not an issue. Good luck with yours.

new Garmin belt?

by realkarl - 2010-01-12 01:01:03

When you received a new Garmin belt and it started working, was it a new and improved belt in some way?

Bivent. PM + Garmin = NO GO

by realkarl - 2010-01-12 01:01:37

I got a Garmin Forerunner 310XT as a Christmas present, and was excited to start using it after my biventricular pacer implant and hopefully much increased exercise capacity.

Sadly, it does not work at all. The HR readings are now completely erratic. A biventricular PM is different in that it paces 100% of the time, and the LV natural pulse will always arrive later than the pacer pulse. I can imagine the HRM getting confused.

Surprisingly though, my old $30 Omron HRM still works great. One should think newer technology works better, but not in this case..

Garmin 310 XT With Heart Monitor Strap

by JEM - 2010-08-01 12:08:47

I have a PM (St Jude 2210) and use my Garmin heart monitor chest strap with it, have not had any interference problems. JEM Myrtle Beach, SC

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Pacemakers are very reliable devices.