Are you an electro-cardiograph as well?

At my last pacemaker(Medtronic) check I was told that the device had recorded a period of ventricular tachycardia.I didn't feel it, nor have I felt any arrhythmia other than the occasional "skipped" beat which is nothing new to me.My question: How accurate is a pacemaker as a recording device.?I will doubtless be required to have a heart monitor 12-24 hour), to see if they can uncover the "beast". I really like my pacemaker. It works like gangbusters at 60 bpm. Anybody have a similar situation?

4 Comments

How accurate

by Good Dog - 2015-09-22 11:09:14

My PM is Medtronic and is 12 years old. At my last checkup the tech told me that it recorded an episode of electrical interference. It gave a date and time, but that is it. So I asked about other recorded events. She said that my unit is older and has less bells and whistles than some. It doesn't always record every specific event and/or provide a long look-back period.
To answer your question; I am not sure, but I guess it is safe to assume that it depends upon the manufacturer and the model you have. I think it is also safe to assume that if it recorded a sufficient amount of data, you wouldn't need a heart monitor.

Frankly, the reason my unit lasted 12 years is, because I don't have all the bells and whistles. Most of those that I do have are turned-off. I like it that way.
Dave

recording

by Tracey_E - 2015-09-22 12:09:05

It records episodes, not all the data that an ecg would record. It's a computer, so if it says you had a period of tachy, then you had a period of tachy. That just means you went fast, however, so it's not necessarily a bad thing. How long and how fast? Unless it's very high or sustained, it's probably not a big deal. Mine records them nearly every morning between 7 and 8 am. Guess when I go to the gym? There's a reason for me going fast during that time so technically it's tachy, but practically that's what my heart is supposed to do at that time. So, first thing to do is find out when it happened and see if you can piece together what you were doing at the time. If there's no reason, if it's sustained, if it's dangerously high, then yes, they'll probably want to investigate further.

Accuracy

by gleesue - 2015-09-23 03:09:04

I'm surprised and very pleased with the accuracy of my PM. I have a Biotronik.

At my last check-up the tech was looking at my report and asked about an episode a few weeks earlier. I was in flutter for about 10 hours. My wife and I thought back and sure enough we were on vacation. I got into a hot tube that was too hot, 109 degrees. My wife said don't get in, it's too hot. Of course I did ant way. I felt my heart react, but didn't tell my wife. We were going white water rafting and zip lining with our kids and grandkids the next day. I took my medicine and it went away, so I told her afterwards.

So yes you can count on the accuracy of your PM. Depending on what you are doing you may not always feel your arrhythmia.

Jerry

Jerry

Adjustable data

by donr - 2015-09-23 12:09:57

You do not list any data on your type PM, so I've got to guess. You did say Medtronic, however. I likewise host a Medtronic device, so I/m assuming that yours has many of the same capabilities as mine.
A lot of the data it records is dependent on the settings your Cardio selects for the PM - for instance the threshold that is selected for Atrial high rates & the duration of the events. Tracey said it all when she told you about her daily gym episodes. If your Cardio selected a high rate threshold for the PM to detect as Tachy that is within your normal range of HR under exercise, it will report it as such. Mine is set at 175 BPM, w/ no delay, meaning that if I have a single Atrial beat that is faster than a 175 BPM, it will report an episode of Atrial High rate. Now the PM works on the basis of elapsed time it measures for events, whereas we think in terms of HR in BPM. OTOH, my Ventricular recording requires 5 beats at a rate of 175 BPM before it records it as a high rate event.

That little computer is pretty darned accurate. It also does EXACTLY what it is told to do, so for your V-Tach it could be an episode of any length, depending on how it is set up to count & record.

Just remember that your PM can only measure two parameters - elapsed time for events & voltage amplitude for events. It can only measure them at two locations - the points where the two leads are inserted into the heart wall. It takes those data and using info stored in it for making decisions, decides what has happened, counts episodes & reports. That's a lot of work for that itty bitty device.

If it works like gangbusters at 60 BPM, it does also at 160 BPM. But remember this - it does exactly what it is programmed to do - nothing more, nothing less. If you get dumb reports out of it, that means that dumb programming decisions have been made by whoever told it what to do. Sorta like that old punchline to the joke - "Oh &^%$#, you did exactly what I told you to do!"

Donr


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