Palpatations

I had my biventricular PM fitted 2 months ago today. I'm a runner having completed a several marathons and ultras. I've slowly built up my exercise program to 5k, running 2 mins and walking 2 mins. Today I felt ready to tackle a 5k run. My pace was easy and I was coping quite well and felt good but then on a hill at about 4k I experienced palpatations. My pulse was about 130 but I noticed that my heart seemd to skip a beat every now and then. Prior to my PM my cardiologist said I had "Achenbach Syndrome" (not sure of the spelling). I'm due for my check up and PM programming next Monday. Can anyone comment on what I might have experienced today? My PM settings are 50 to 180 bpm.

4 Comments

Google it!

by donr - 2011-11-22 06:11:58

Don: Not the way I read Google. It's a blister on the hand according to Google.

What you have sounds like PVC's (Premature Ventricular Contractions) It seems like a skipped beat, but is merely one beat coming a bit sooner than it should, so is weaker & we sometimes don't realize it takes place. then the next beat is a bit stronger & we sense it more. Gives us the impression that the weaker beat never occurred. I had them up to 33% of the time before getting a combo of drugs & my existing PM to counteract them.

I'll quote my Cardio, EP & Cardio's head nurse: "They won't kill you!" I'll attest to that, but they can scare the daylights out of you - especially when you first get them & haven't the foggiest idea what they are.

By all means - ask at your appt & specifically if they are PVC's. Your PM will have a record of them. I'll warn you in advance - if they are PVC's, the Dr. will not get excited at all. You will have to press him/her for a discussion of the subject. I mean press VERY hard.

Don

Palpations

by J.B. - 2011-11-22 11:11:43

Don,

I don't claim to be an expert on palpations or pacemakers. But from what I have seen a bunch of people say about having populations after they got a pacemaker I have reason to think some of these may be caused by the pacemaker. I can see how the pacemaker getting out of sync with the heart’s natural pacemaker could cause some irregular heart beats. I know nothing like that is supposed to happen and I'm sure the pacemaker is just doing its job on schedule but the natural the pacemaker doesn't have to follow such rigid schedule. A contributing factor could be the fact that those two leads are now sticking into the heart wall and the heart or again the natural pacemaker, could be thrown out of kilter.

Of course I don't have proof for any of this and if you ask a doctor and you will be told that is crazy as there is no way it can happen. But if you stay around here for a while you will see many of the people talking about having palpations no and they did not have before they got a pacemaker. I know I started having mine on a regular basis within a year after I got mine. Sure I had them before like a couple of times a year, now it is a couple or more times a month. The only good thing is they don't last very long.

JB

Wenkebach!!!!

by sue uk - 2011-11-23 04:11:01

Not sure about the spelling but maybe that is the syndrome your cardio mentioned ??
lf so it does cause a lot of irregularities ( l know cos l have it) & palpitations its usually caused by your AV node being "diseased". Sorry but that is as "technical"as l get :)
Good luck!, Sue X

Effect of pacemaker

by ElectricFrank - 2011-11-23 12:11:06

I've noticed that PVC's seem to be worse if the pacing voltage is set high. A couple of years ago I had a problem with losing ventricular capture (probably from a virus) and they set my voltage up to 5V just to make sure my heart would respond. I started having a lot more PVC's and the doc said it was due to whatever caused the capture issue. Finally after a couple of months I asked to have the ventricular pacing voltage lowered back to the tested value. After a couple of weeks the PVC's started decreasing.

My take on it is that the high pacing voltage is irritating to the heart wall. Then the irritated area starts sending errant pacing signals.

By the way I also agree that the electrodes inserted in the heart wall could cause a disruption of the natural conduction system. I would expect the hear to gradually adapt.

frank

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Member Quotes

I've seen many posts about people being concerned about exercise after having a device so thought I would let you know that yesterday I raced my first marathon since having my pacemaker fitted in fall 2004.