Atrial Flutter
Recently diagnosed with atrial flutter. I have had symptoms since July(asymmetrical edema and shoulder pain) I requested blood work in July. Informing neurologist that heart disease runs in my family. Of course I was treated like an hysterical hypochondriac female and told to wait until my appointment in September. Well blood work had my peptide level at 3,300, it was 84 in March. Doctors told me to go to an emergency room. I refused. What can they do at an emergency room? I have an appointment with a cardiologist December 16, earlier if they have a cancellation.Th Apple Watch ECG indicates my heart is erratic and beating fast. I leave on a cruise tomorrow, again , what can they do in an emergency room, .
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Thanks for sharing your knowledge
Thanks, actually caffeine in moderation seems to calm he heart
Thank you for the advice
I’m seen at 2 places for FA , Mayo Clinic in Rochester and and university of Chicago.
From my experience, it can cause the flutter. Cardiologists reported here the same. You might not feel the flutter immediately but.... If you test and have none for a month, and have no more flutters? Better than what the docs will suggest in way of meds and treatments.
The meds , especially warfarin, is a pain when my Father was on it. I have read they can electrically reset that upper chamber so it doesn’t beat erratically. I read it was an 80 percent success rate. Anyone had that done?
Many people have ablations @fealiity and some suggested if for you here ...
"...The meds , especially warfarin, is a pain when my Father was on it. I have read they can electrically reset that upper chamber so it doesn’t beat erratically. I read it was an 80 percent success rate. Anyone had that done?"
The 'reset' is called cardioversion. It's a lot like paddling the heart of a patient having a heart attack, except there's no urgency and the patient is helped to be unconscious (like most having a bad heart attack and needing CPR) by the administration of propofol...and sometimes a wee dash of fentanyl thrown in. The success rate of cardioversion depends on the heart being cardioverted, but one factor is the duration of time, and history of fibrillation or flutter. Hearts left in arrhythmia for long periods are notoriously difficult to treat. So, the idea is to get one's heart cardioverted ASAP. Mind you, my BIL was in flutter for about two years and did respond to a single cardioversion which has left him in stable normal sinus rhythm (NSR) since late May of this year....so go figure. Each of us is a different animal when in an ER.
The quoted success rate you state above might be that for catheter ablation to stop fibrillation or flutter, or PACs, or SVT. [premature atrial complexes/contractions and supra-ventricular tachycardia respectively). Across all electrophysiologists performing ablations, the general success rate for an 'index', or first, ablation is about 75% with variance of about 10%. Sometimes the patient's fibrillating heart will enter NSR as the EP is using the catheter RF needle or cryo needle, at which the assumption is that the signal has just been blocked. The EP should normally 'challenge' the heart using adenosine and/or isoproterenol to check. If the heart stays in NSR, all reasonable people would take it that the signal has indeed been successfully blocked and the patient is wheeled out to recovery. However, after a couple of calming weeks, the lesions formed by the catheter needle might reduce in size and reveal a clear pathway for a few volts to get through the lesions around it. At that, the heart has a restored spurious path and the atrium will recommence fibrillating. Again, happens in roughly 25% of first/index ablations. The solution...go back for a redo in a few months and hope any new lesions will permanently block the path of the voltage emitting from the focus where the signal entered the atrium previously. This was my personal experience. I was in my local ER with a rapidly pulsating atrium six whole days after my index ablation. Six months later, the very nice gentleman had a second run at my left atrium and told me when he came bedside that they all watched my heart go hard into NSR as we has ablating the tissue around my third pulmonary vein. High fives, and he said he didn't even cardiovert me, which is his normal practice before letting a patient out of his operatory. He didn't need to.