Low bpm

My pacemaker is set for 60 bpm. I have noticed this past week (on my heart rate monitor) its a lot lower - in the 50's. This morning I was getting in the 30's and 40's (after laying in bed all morning). Its where it should be now, but it worries me. I don't know whether I need to make the hour drive to the ER or not. Anyone else seen this before?

3 Comments

counting

by Tracey_E - 2016-05-14 05:05:10

First advice, don't spend all day checking your pulse ;) Little fluctuations are normal and you'll make yourself crazy tracking it all. If you feel bad, count. Otherwise, trust that the pacer is doing its job and resist the urge.

Lower limit of 60 means one beat per second, it doesn't average over a minute. Any time you go a second without a beat, it will kick in. That may not always work out to exactly 60 over the course of a minute, sometimes you'll count 50's and that's perfectly ok.

Monitors are notoriously inaccurate with us. They can pick up pacer spikes as beats, the pacer can interfere so they miss beats. Always count manually. Even that may not be very accurate, tho, because there are sometimes little beats between the strong beats that we miss.

Do you have a home monitor? If you do, there should be a way to hit a button and have it send a report next time you think it's 30's or 40's. That will tell them exactly what's going on at the time.

Do you feel bad? If you do and you are very sure your rate is well below 50, call your doctor or go to the ER. If you feel ok, I'd try to send a pacer update or write it off to counting/monitor error.

Low HR

by BillH - 2016-05-14 05:05:42

There is any number of reasons that your HR might be "low".

The first is that all brands and type of HR monitors can have problems that cause wrong readings. Some time from the type of waveform that is produced by the PM, some time from poor contact, sometime from interference, and some times from an uneven pulse rate that can be caused by extra heart beats (PVC's PAC's).

And from my personal experience, without a PM, using too different type of HR monitor and also comparing it with an Alivecor that with a variable HR at the relative low HR that they can have widely different readings. But they stabalize and agree at higher HR during exercise.

And some PM have sleep modes that can be set to a lower HR.

And some have a "resting mode" where if the HR is constant and regular it will allow the HR to drop to a lower minimum.

Also if you have PVC's or PAC you can get a early heart beat that produces a weak pulse because the heart has not filled with blood, follow at the next regular heart beat that is extra strong. Some people feel them, some people they are very bothersome, and other don't feel them at all. But, depending on the setting of the PM, it can pulse after one of those PVC's or PAC.

Feel you pulse and count it. If it is jumping around all over the place then you might want to go to the ER.

If it is regular, but maybe skipping a pulse now and then that can be norm.

But the main thing is how you feel.

But make a note of the time and the next time the PM is check see if it showing anything at that time.

If you have remote monitoring on your PM call the doctor Monday and see if they see anything.

Low BPM

by Artist - 2016-05-14 07:05:42

I have AFIB and I consistently get BP readings that are below the 60 BPM minimum rate my PM is set at. My cardiologist told me that when my heart is in AFIB, some of the beats are too light to be detected by either my BP cuff or by manually taking my pulse. That might explain your low readings.

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I just want to share about the quality of life after my pacemaker, and hopefully increase awareness that lifestyles do not have to be drastically modified just because we are pacemaker recipients.