Rate Response

I have posted on here several times since receiving my pacemaker back in July. Up until last week they had my rate response feature turned on but last week they turned it off because my own heart is doing fine when I expend any energy and my heartrate increases appropriately to whatever I am doing. So my question is what really is my pacemaker doing without the rate response feature being turned on? I know that I got the pacemaker because I was having these 4-5 second pauses, and one 8 second pause and they now have my low setting at 60 so that my heartrate doesn't go below that. So is that the only thing that my pacemaker is doing now, just watching the low end heart rate? Sorry, dumb question maybe. I go back this afternoon because the nurse/technician want to check me out since having the rate response turned off for a week. Thanks everyone! I sure appreciate all of you - so much more knowledgeable and helpful than the doctor's office staff!

7 Comments

Yes

by ebfox - 2012-10-03 04:10:44

Hey Mary,

How are things up there?

You are exactly right- it is sitting there and the only time it paces you is if your intrinsic rate drops below 60. Your interogation report may say "pacing less than 1% of the time" and your battery life will be 10-15 years.

If you had any of those 4-5 second pauses, you will probably not even feel them, but they will show up on the interogation report.

I have one doing the same thing-

Take Care-

EB

Me, Too

by tuck3lin - 2012-10-03 08:10:52

This is basically the same set up as my pacemaker and the same reason I had the implant (occasional pauses measured on a holter monitor of up to four missing beats, all occurring at night while I was sleeping). The rate response on my pacemaker is also turned off (actually, it has never been turned on) and my low threshold when the pacemaker kicks in is set to 50 bpm.

Over four years, my pacemaker has been helping me out from as little as 0.8% to as much as 3% per each three month dial-in report. I once calculated that out to be between 11 and 42 minutes a day. As ebfox says, that stretches out battery life by a lot. In my case, estimated to be over 10 years.

Me too !!

by wrg - 2012-10-04 01:10:53

They turned mine off too, glad they did, it was making me feel changes in heart area, I have pauses also. Was told it now corrects the low heart beat and keeps it above 60 at rest, the tachy has been doing well, hardly ever does my rate increase over 85 during moving around. But was told that PM is still correcting pauses and such, because the way it is programmed to keep pace with low heart rate. I never feel it correcting anything, but It never lets my rate get below 60 while resting. and I am suppose to have SSS. I am about to wonder if all I have is low heart rate, when diagnosed with SSS, I was on some medications that cause heart issues. Makes you wonder !! Hummmmmm

Another possibility

by ElectricFrank - 2012-10-04 02:10:50

The RR only handles problems in the atrial (sinus) pacemaker.

The other problem is having one of the electrical blocks in the nerve bundle between atrium and ventricle. In this case your natural pacemaker is causing the atrium to beet appropriately. The pacemaker senses the atrial beat and uses it to time the ventricle pace. So your pacer may still be pacing most of the time.

frank

Thanks All!

by Good Hearted Mary - 2012-10-04 03:10:43

Thank you for the comments/ideas back about this! I guess my battery is going to last a long time then because my heart is pacing most of the time all by itself and that is what they prefer, rather than having the rate response feature doing it for me! And that is a good thing!

Yes I know Wrg

by Good Hearted Mary - 2012-10-04 04:10:27

Yes, I feel sometimes that maybe they over-corrected a few pauses by putting in a pacemaker! I imagine many people have pauses that they and their doctors don't even know about! My blood pressure has always been normal, not high at all, maybe a little low, but healthy. I don't exactly know how they come up with a diagnosis of SSS with only 3 pauses showing up in a month-long halter monitor that I was wearing. And the monitor turned out to be faulty and I had to get a replacement when I was over halfway done with the study.

Diagnosis

by ElectricFrank - 2012-10-04 09:10:26

Read $$$ syndrome. Pacemakers are a commodity item salable by fear. They are learning from the blood thinner and statin marketers.

There aren't many of us that can look a doctor in the face when he/she presents the pharma pitch "you have 7 times the the risk of a ??? if you don't take or get the the prescribed thing", and ask 7 times what?

We are the cause of the high cost of heath care.

Ah well,

frank

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