Related Experiment Videos
Ventricular cross stimulation using a pacing system analyzer
1Division of Cardiology, San Francisco General Hospital, CA 94110.
Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology : PACE
|August 1, 1990
Summary
Cross stimulation occurs when a pacemaker lead stimulates the wrong heart chamber. This can be avoided by using a unipolar ventricular channel during pacemaker system analysis.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Pacemaker implantation involves placing leads in cardiac chambers.
- Cross stimulation is a phenomenon where a lead in one chamber paces another.
Observation:
- Three cases of ventricular cross stimulation during pacemaker implantation are presented.
- This occurred with bipolar atrial and ventricular leads connected to a dual chamber analyzer.
Findings:
- The cross stimulation pathway was identified within the pacing system analyzer.
- Low resistance connections between analyzer channels caused the current to flow incorrectly.
Implications:
- Switching the ventricular channel to unipolar eliminates analyzer-induced cross stimulation.
- Awareness of this phenomenon prevents misdiagnosis of lead migration or malposition.