Remote Reading

Malfunction

by AgentX86 - 2021-02-18 20:41:00

They don't.  They look to see if you've malfunctioned and to make sure the programming of the pacemaker suits you.  How often depends on you and the reason that you needed a PM.  For the first year, there is usually an in-person interrogation every three months, then less often after.  For some, the remote unit transmits your condition every night.  For others, it is used only so the patient doesn't have to show up in-person for interrogations.  It can also be used to send information to your EP on demand.  If you're feeling something weird happening, you can initiate a transmission for EP to review.

In short, there is no one answer.

Remote Monitoring

by Gemita - 2021-02-18 20:47:31

Hello Eddy,

I have a Medtronic pacemaker and a MyCare Link phone monitor.  I also have a Patient Assistant device that I can place over my pacemaker device when I am in trouble arrhythmia wise and press the device button which will automatically place a mark on any ECG recording at the time of my significant event - say a very high heart rate - so that my doctors can assess the significance of the event when I send in the transmission. 

So to answer your question what does the clinic look for?  It looks for a significant event, eg a high heart rate, a dangerous arrhythmia like Ventricular Tachycardia.  Depending on what has been set up in your pacemaker, it will detect and highlight for their attention say a heart rate over a certain limit, say 180 bpm, a long duration atrial tachyarrhythmia, any evidence of syncope.  

My monitor was initially set up to download to my clinic nightly because they were looking for syncope, pausing, VT and other tachy arrhythmias.  They were also looking to see how well my anti arrhythmic meds were working to stop my arrhythmias and whether these needed adjusting.

How often?  If you have a serious arrhythmia or heart condition, they will likely want to monitor nightly but as AgentX86 says, routine monitoring could be every 3, 6 or 12 months or as necessary.

My transmissions go via the manufacturers website to my pacemaker clinic.  Any urgent event is passed to my doctors immediately. 

When they monitor your downloads they can see whether your pacemaker is functioning as it should so any malfunction would be obvious and you would be contacted to attend clinic for checks and where possible adjustments.

I see you have bradycardia and AF.  Perhaps they need to monitor your AF to see how well any medication is working, how frequently you are getting episodes and whether you need to be anticoagulated.   Good luck and I would start asking your doctors lots of questions

Biotronic remote

by Katja3 - 2021-02-20 06:10:34

After I got Biotronic remore reading pm last time,I had a lengthy talk with the surgeon about it.

He said that the data that is transmitted every night is the full data they would see in your pm check. Basically, your pm will connect to the box that will send time-rythm data, treshholds, cable impedances and voltages etc.. everything.

The link goes only one way, so they cannot send anything back. There is no option to send anything back. Yours only sends, and they can only receive (to prevent it getting hacked).

They won't be daily checking your data, unless its an acute case. Normally the data stays with the manufacturer database, which scans the data with different algorithms. If the algorithm detects something unusual (=alarming) it then sends an email notification to your cardiologist, and in Biotronic device, also sends a message to the transmitter device to show it on the screen. Basically it tells you to contact your doctor.

Only in this case your cardiologist would go and actually view the data, and then contact you etc.

I assume Medtronic works very much the same way. I had an option between the two, and he spoke of them the same, however I went with Biotronic as it currently has a slightly larger set of countries in which the transmitter works, and as I travel a lot that was the deciding factor.