low pulse rate

Wondering what this means, my setting is 60 but my pulse has been dropping under that. Its consistently 50-54.. Should I be conserned about this or not. Feeling tired and sluggish.. Thanks for any thoughts..

4 Comments

pulse rate

by Vai - 2008-01-10 01:01:21

This is odd. The PM set at 60 would support your heart beat at that rate if your natural heart beat ever falls below this threshold. In other words, if the PM is working or you did not make an error in monitoring your pulse, your heart rate would never fall below 60 bpm. I suggest you visit your EP to have the PM check out.

As for being tired and sluggish, it could be due to the heart meds you're taking. Some of these beta blockers can have such a significant effect on some individuals.

Been there

by cottontop - 2008-01-10 01:01:43

Do you feel short of breath or a smothered feeling? Three months after I got my PM I had the same thing. It was very late so my cardiologist told me to go to the ER. I have a Medtronic PM so they called a rep. and ran a check and I had developed heart block in my lower ventricle and they changed the mode my pm was in. Made all the difference in the world. The rep. said from my report that is had been in the wrong mode for some time. So it is worth checking out! Keep us posted.
Your in my thoughts and prayers,
Amy

Low Heart Rate

by SMITTY - 2008-01-10 03:01:20

Hello Sohare,

I’ll try to guess what it means since what you are seeing what I see frequently with my PM. In fact just this morning I found my heart rate at 48 and the low setting is 60. This has been going on daily since I got mine in ’00. I have discussed it with the nurse/technicians and I will pass on the explanation I was given, for what it may be worth. I will say I accept the explanation as I found an article on the subject that pretty well confirmed their statements.

Our pacemaker’s only purpose is to help our heart maintain a regular rhythm. In other words it checks to see if our heart’s pacemaker will send an impulse to make our heart beat. If it doesn’t see an impulse from the heart’s natural PM, it will send the needed impulse.

But there are times when the heart’s natural PM will send an impulse that for reasons I do not understand, that never gets to the intended target. Your manmade PM will see these impulses and then decide the heart was taking care of things and sit back and wait for X number of milliseconds and try again. When the PM misreads the signal, sent out be the heart, there will be no beat for that heart chamber. The impulse the PM misreads will be so little that we do not feel it with our fingers when we are counting our pulse. In fact I have four different electronic devices at home that can give me my heart rate, and they too will not see that misleading heart beat. As one tech agreed, what is really happening is our heart’s natural pacemaker is faking out our manmade PM

Of course if your PM is always in complete control of your heart beat (heart is 100% pacemaker dependent) because you heart’s natural pacemaker has totally ceased to function the above does not apply

Now I'll add one more item. You say your heart rate is constantly 50 to 54 and you have a low setting. If you relly means it never goes above 50 to 54 I suggest that you have it checked. Becasue based on what I understand the low excursions should only happen occasionally and be relatively short lived.

Good luck,

Smity

Smitty's right....

by auntiesamm - 2008-01-10 06:01:19

Smitty is right as always. In case you don't know he is our #1 researcher and go-to-person. Do you have a home BP monitor? I have one with BP/HR and use it to check both. My PM is set a 60 for low and I have seen my HR at less a few times when monitored but it corrects in a split-second. I'm paced 100% in the ventricle and 56% in the atria. If I were you I would check with my cardiologist/EP.
Sharon

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