Weird Pulsations From Boston Scientific Accolade

I had a Boston Scientific Accolade PM installed 4/2018.  A few months later I began to notice strange pulsations (throbbing vibrations) occuring randomly at the site of the PM unit in my chest. Later I realized they were not random ... they occured on even hours of the day, more often evening hours, and 14 pulses at a time.  They are not painful but noticeable.

My MD never heard of such a thing ... Boston Scientific babbled something about "self-tests" but begged off by saying that it would be better to leave it alone.  Recently I'm noticing that the pulsations sometimes occur in series of 14 , 18, or 20 times ... still around the time of even hours.

Have I totally taken leave of my senses or has anyone out there ever heard of anything like this???

2 Comments

Self test

by AgentX86 - 2020-03-07 23:49:30

Sounds like Boston Scientific knows something about their product (but they can't make changes without your EP).  Talk to your PM tech about it.  He can either move it to a time that doesn't bother you or turn it off completely.  You're probably better off with it on but if it bothers you, it can be turned off.  IPerhaps if it's turned off temporarily you'll then know for sure what it is and stop worrying about it.

Probably not from the PM itself

by crustyg - 2020-03-08 12:47:29

Accolade doesn't have a vibrator as a smartphone does - it's entirely solid state with no piezo sounder either.

It sounds much more likely that your PM is running some threshold tests on your leads+heart to check levels, calibrate settings etc., which might *feel* like they are coming from the PM pocket but are actually heart movements caused by the tests.

At my last outpatient check the EP tech commented that my pacing output was totally fixed, no automatic calibration enabled (actually not possible in my current pacing mode), which *is* unusual, but it saves me the odd sensations when the PM does this stuff.

You might be able to charm your EP team into disabling these self-tests, even if only for a few weeks, to see if that helps, as Agent says.  Then you will know.

You know you're wired when...

You have a little piece of high-tech in your chest.

Member Quotes

I am just grateful to God that I lived long enough to have my ICD put in. So many people are not as lucky as us; even though we sometimes don't feel lucky.