Wondering

I was wondering does a pacemaker response to anxiety and hyperventilation? For instance you are lying on the couch and you are watching a scary movie does your pacemaker know it has to increase the heart rate?

2 Comments

Rate response

by golden_snitch - 2014-09-20 02:09:47

Hi!

First of all, this depends on whether you need the pacemaker to increase the rate ("rate response" function), because your sinus node is not able to do so. Don't know what your diagnosis is. Usually, people with a heart block do not need the rate response. There are also some sick sinus node patients, who only go into bradycardia at rest, but are fine when they move or get excited, and so on.

So, let's say you need the rate response. Then the next question would be what kind of rate response sensor your pacemaker has. A motion sensor won't react to anxiety or hyperventilation. A motion sensor plus minute ventilation sensor might react to hyperventilation (but if they work with a cross-check then rather not), but definitely not to anxiety. The third possibility is a so called "closed-loop stimulation" sensor (CLS), and this is to date the only sensor which has been proven to react to mental stress. The thing is, the great majority of pacemakers has a motion sensor only. There is just one manufacturer with CLS, and that's Biotronik, but their market share is comparatively small.

I have CLS, and while I have the feeling that it does in fact react to some mental stress, I do not get strong responses when watching a scary movie. But compared to the other rate response sensors, it reacts a bit to mental stress, which the other sensors - had them all - did not do at all.

Inga

Ok, so the wife...

by Theknotguy - 2014-09-21 03:09:42

OK, so the wife comes home after being out with her friends and says she doesn't feel well. Hot, can't catch breath, etc. Get out my pulse ox, do a couple of other checks and it appears she's in afib with RVR. (Doctor had already told her she was in afib and she refused treatment because son had new baby on the way. So, for you critics, I didn't diagnose afib with RVR just by using a pulse ox.) So we call 911 and it's off to the hospital. I'm the one with the PM.

Did my PM kick up its speed when I went into overdrive due to mental issues - no. Kinda wished it did. It did kick up the speed when I ran up and down the stairs getting the pulse ox and calling 911. Then had a mini-session of afib due to all the excitement and extra adrenaline but I'm prone to going into afib at the sound of a siren anyway. Kinda expected it.

So, for me, the PM didn't seem to react to the emotional stimulation but it did react to the physical stimulation. But it's a Medtronics with the R for rate activation due to the piezoelectric accelerometer it has.

Hope this helps.

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