MODE SWITCH

Hi All,

I have gone back today to find out results of tape monitor. The stupid hospital have sent me the wrong appt, anyway I asked if I could speak to someone as I have been anxious. All the pacemaker nurse could tell me was that the PM checks were all ok, however I had gone into mode switch 9% in a year, hence asking me to wear a monitor. From the montor they have picked up "extra beat" which I assume are from the fast heart rate. I now have to wait for another appt with my cardiologist. Has this happened to anyone else?
The nurse has said its nothing to worry about.
Thanks

1 Comments

Mode switch & atrial tachyarrhythmias

by golden_snitch - 2012-09-27 03:09:41

Hi!

Your pacer goes into mode switch when it detects fast atrial arrhythmias, such as atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation. As soon as an episode starts, the pacer will switch from sensing and pacing both the atrium and the ventricle (DDD mode) to simply ignoring what's going on in the atrium, and pacing the ventricle only (VVI mode). This mode switch was designed to avoid that the pacer picks up fast arrhythmias from the atriums and follows this fast rhythm which could lead to fluttering/fibrillating ventricles (and that is dangerous).

I guess they want you to wear a monitor to confirm that you have had episodes of atrial flutter or fibrillation. That's good, because the pacemaker sometimes interprets things wrongly (artefacts), and then reports that you had atrial fibrillation when you actually didn't. So, the monitor is to make sure that what the pacer is recording really is happening. If you are in mode switch 9% of the time in a whole year, you seem to have quite a few arrhythmia episodes. Could be that when the monitor confirms these arrhythmias your doctor will put you on anti-arrhythmic and probably also blood-thinning medication.

Hope this helps a bit to understand what's going on.
Best wishes
Inga

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