confused

hi everyone, i’m hoping that someone can explain as i’m a bit confused here, my husband has a mechanical mitral valve and a PM for 4 years now, we have just received a letter saying after his PM interrogation it confirmed mode switch events suggesting he is getting atrial tachyarythmia and that unfortunately the electrograms were programed off; now they have asked for them to be switched on and will do another PM check in 6 months, could someone with understanding of this on here be kind enough to explain what all this means.  thank you in advance.  what is atrial tachyarrhythmia? what are switch events? and do they switch on these modes by computer?

1 Comments

Sorry about no reply

by john1945 - 2012-08-24 03:08:40

Hi Bullseye,
I am sorry you havent had a reply, which is unusual.

I am new to all this and have an ICD implant because of ventricular tachycardia. The atria is the top chamber of the heart and the ventria is the lower chamber, generally they always talk about the right side chambers because the electrical signals that trigger your heart beat start at the "sinus node" which is at the top of the right atria.

Tachycardia is a very fast heart beat which if it comes from the atria can be controlled by drugs or pacing (as far as I know). If its ventricular they try pacing but if not the ICD (defibrillator) gives your heart a shock. A very fast heart beat lowers your blood pressure and if it goes too low you pass out and it can be very serious.

You may read/hear about "fibrillation" this is the next step from tachycardia and means the heart just quivers and blood pressure is none life sustaining.

As far as I know all these pacers and certainly the defibrillators are programmed with a computer.

Probably it may be good to talk with the technician or Doctor and ask them to explain and if you dont understand say so.

Anyway, I hope you havent given up and see this post and that all goes well.
take care
john 1945

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