Rectus abdominis as a source of myopotentials inhibiting demand pacemakers

We examined four patients with a demand pacemaker who exhibited transient symptoms of vertigo while trying to rise from the supine position. In two of these there was an epicardial pacing system with the pacemaker in the abdominal wall superficial to the rectus abdominis muscle; in the other two cases the pacing system was transvenous with the pacemaker superficial to the right pectoralis major muscle. It was found that the "pseudovertigo" was due to pacemaker inhibition caused by rectus abdominis myopotentials in all four patients. Changing the pacing mode from the demand to fixed-rate resulted in the disappearance of all symptoms at rest and during exercise.