Pacing percentages

I just had my 3 month checkup.  I transmitted the information from my wireless Medtronic Carelink monitor from home and the nurse practioner from my cardiologists office called me this morning with the results.  She said everything looked good.  No events.  I was pacing 89% from the upper part and 1% from the lower part.  When I had it checked 2 weeks post implant it was only pacing 40% and 1%.  Isn't 89% kind of high and isn't that a big increase?  I needed the paemaker for low heart rate. Before the pacemaker my heart rate was consistently in the 50s but went to the 30s while sleeping.  I was and still am on beta blockers for irregular heart beats and palpitations which is probably the reason for the low heart rate.  My pacemaker is set at 60bpm.  Would lowering the setting to 50 or 55 lower my pacing percentage?

3 Comments

What is of greatest importance to you . ?

by IAN MC - 2016-11-07 13:28:04

.. how you feel, or your pacing percentage ?

If you reduce your base level , yes this would lower your pacing percentage but it would also lower the amount of oxygen being pumped around your body so if you set it too low you would feel more fatigued.  I persuaded them to play around with my base level and for me 50 bpm was too low, 55 bpm was much better.

If your main concern is battery life you will be surprised to see how little difference it makes

Best of luck

Ian

It can't hurt to ask

by Tracey_E - 2016-11-07 13:34:07

It's common for the numbers to change as they fine tune the settings. Lowering the rate probably would change your pacing percentage. The question is how you would feel. If you still feel good, then go for it. However, you may not like it. Some feel ok with a minimum rate under 60, but most do not. It has suprisingly little effect on battery life either way, and there is no magic number that's considered good or bad. Many of us pace 100% of the time, so it's all good. Feeling good is the most important thing. 

Lower rate

by Good Dog - 2016-11-07 16:10:11

I agree with the two previous posts. I think that lowering your rate would obviously reduce the amount you are being paced and that is a good thing as long as you feel good at the lower rate.

I started-out with my rate at 60 bpm and I was having trouble sleeping. My EP asked if I would like to try a lower minimum rate. He said that since my body was accustomed to a lower rate prior to the PM, that it may work. In any case, he said he could always change it back. So he lowered it to 50 bpm. That was almost 30 years ago. I immediately felt better and slept better. So it did work very well for me. I did it for the sole reason of wanting to feel better, but I suppose that I did get the benefit of being paced less. I have never taken my battery life to the 3 month optional time frame except for the most recent change, which lasted 12 years. The others lasted an average of 9 years, but their life could have been much longer. I also have never used rate response and did not have a lot of bells and whistles, which also helped to extend the battery life.

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