1,2,skip,1,2,skip...

With ski season slowwwly winding down (still lots of snow on the mtn) I'm starting to spend time in the gym. Today I noticed that as my heart rate went up- the following happened:
once over 100 it skipped about 1 every 20+/- beats; once in 110-120 range it started skipping every third beat 2 times then after the 7th, and essentially maintained that sequence. Once back down 100-110 area it went back to skipping once every 20+/- and below 100 back to normal. What made me check was that I started to feel palpitations.
My rate response is supposed to be off and my upper limit is set at 160.
Any thoughts?
Harry

3 Comments

skips

by Tracey_E - 2011-03-29 04:03:04

Sometimes it's a small beat you don't feel, not really a missed beat. Ask them about it next time you have the pm checked, they may be able to tweak your settings.

Wenckebach Rhythm

by ElectricFrank - 2011-03-29 11:03:59

You are describing what is known as a Wenckebach block where the ventricles recovery time after a pacing pulse (natural or pacemaker) keeps getting longer with each pulse and final can't respond to the next one. So it skips a beat giving it time to recover. The higher your HR the sooner it reaches the skip point.

By the way this is the same type of thing that happens when the Upper Tracking Limit is reached. In fact the Medtronics manual refers to the upper limit response as initiating a Wenckebach rhythm.

It is possible that turning up the ventricular pacing voltage a bit might help, but they need to be sure there isn't some underlying problem first.

For more on it do a Google search on Wenckebach for more than you probably want to know about it. I've just tried to give a simple explaination.

frank

Thanks

by Creaky - 2011-03-30 09:03:46

Thanks Frank. I will check that out.

Harry

You know you're wired when...

Your favorite poem is “Ode to a Cardiac Node”.

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