Ever heard of this?

Hi! You seem to know as much or more about EP as anyone here. I got a brand new B.S. defibrillator with all the bells and whistles 1 year ago. Recently, I had a syncopal spell.that lasted on 'n off for 2 hours..so I got out my interrogation summary and looked at it. All my ATP's were turned off. I called and talked to the "new" EP tech. He told me,Your ICD does not have ATP capacity." I told him it was using it in February...Did Doc order it turned off or did it just happen....He said Oh, Doc ordered it off THEY have discovered that if you are VTaching at 170 and the ATP kicks in it can cause Vfib.. #1- I have no ATP and don't want to get shocked #2-He may just speak before he thinks- If you were me...would you tell the Doc about this? I don't want to get ANYONE in trouble! Thank you very much for your wise, advice, Bev

2 Comments

Degeneration

by PacerRep - 2013-11-02 07:11:31

So a few things caught my eye here....

First off, ATP...in some people do cause the arrhythmia to degenerate into a worse situation such as VF, or even speed the VT up. It can happen. Usually we change the ATP settings and limit it to 1 attempt only. So in that regard he is not BSing you.

The problem I see is that this dude first said your ICD does not have ATP...There isn't an ICD in the world manufactured after 2005 (i think) that does not have Anti Tachy Pacing capabilities....So in this regard, I think your guy is just blurting crap out and makes me doubt the fact that he knows that your ATP is off due to degeneration.

Speak to the doctor, If your ATP did cause your VT to worsen, they will have a strip of it in your file, I would demand to see it.

If you've had any surgeries, we typically turn shocks and ATP off during the procedure and then turn it back on post-op, maybe somebody missed it.

Good luck

Thanks !!!

by Bevof NC - 2013-11-03 03:11:42

I never heard of the ATP causing the VT to degenerate to VF. I thought he was feeding me "junk". Maybe I can trust him more. He has said some other things in the past that made me doubt his knowledge of what he was doing. I sure do appreciate you!!! Bev

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