Ectopic vs A fib

[paulh1]

What is the difference between an ectopic heart rate and A fib? Symptoms seem similar.

[rosyG]

Bob is best at explaining this exactly... I know ectopics precede AF but you can have ectopics and AF doesn't start!!

[cat55]

Hi I wish i knew this as well, have had 24 hour ECG and 7 day ECG which have both shown lots of ectopics but not A.f when I thought it was. My heart is leaping around today, don't know why, but can only assume these are ectopics. It is not really pleasant. sorry I am no help but can commiserate with your uncertainty.

Best wishes Kath

[BobD Volunteer]

O K sorry been out all day. Ectopic means out of place. This means that the ventricle tries to beat at the wrong time so there is no blood in it since the atria has not delivered it. (I assume here you understand how the heart works?) This results in no blood being pumped so on your pulse you feel it as a missed beat. Now everybody on this planet gets loads of ectopic beats every day. 200 on average. WE AFers , however, are overly sensitive about what our hearts are doing and feel every darned one of them which other people are unaware of most of the time. They have nothing to do with AF at all which is an entirely different rhythm with no regular beats at all. What you will be finding is that your heart is trying to go into AF but not sustaining it so your ectopics are actually a good sign. No it doesn't feel like it does it? I have had sessions where I have had every third beat lost for weeks at a time which makes it difficult to sleep when you hear your heart all the time as I do. Dave Brubeck has nothing on my ticker. I have had every third, fourth, fifth etc up to eleven and back to three which was even more interesting. The main thing is that you will not suffer the other side effects of AF such as weakness etc as the heart is pumpojg well on the ones that aren't missing. Hope that helps.

[paulh1 in reply to BobD]

Bob, my next set of questions are how do you tell if it's beginning of Afib or just ectopic? To me they feel the same except for the physical symptoms that accompany an Afib attack Would a halter monitor be able to tell the difference between an episode of ectopics or an A fib? I'm just trying to see if I can discern the warning signs of each so I can avoid maybe pushing myself into full blown Afib

[Tobw in reply to BobD]

First time I've heard that about everyone having 200 ectopic beats a day Bob. That's interesting because I'm currently about ten weeks into a spell without AFib (a long time by my recent standards), but for the last fortnight I've been noticing a lot more ectopic beats than normal. Usually I would take this as a sign that a spell of AFib is not far away and there have been nights lately when I've gone to bed convinced that I'd wake up in a few hours time with my heart going nineteen to the dozen, but, no, it's not happened yet.

Your experiences, and mine recently to a lesser extent, suggest that the main "damage" ectopic beats do is to increase stress to the level where AFib becomes a probability rather than the possibility it is when someone is in sinus node and, relatively, unconcerned about their heart.

My recent biospy has convinced me that stress is a definite trigger for my AFib - I had about a month of being in AFib every three days or so leading up to the procedure in mid September, but have been clear of it since then.

[virajw in reply to BobD]

Hi Bob,

I am sorry to bother you. I have had AFIB since Feb 15. On average I have been getting 3 episodes a month. I am on Propafenone which has not helped much. This past month I have not got a single episode but have been experiencing missed beats ( ectopics?) without AFIB. Any explanation for this? Appreciate your answering questions to help out others. Doctors do not good explainers but good prescribers.

[BobD Volunteer in reply to virajw]

Ectopics are quiet a normal function for anybody. "Normal " people have up to 200 a day. I was once told that ectopics are a good sign  in that the heart is trying to go into AF and failing.  I haven't had AF for seven years since my third ablation but a recent 48 hour tape showed around 2000 ectopics in any 24 hour period.  They do not affect me other than when I am trying to go to sleep when they can be annoying.  Small price to pay for no AF.

[virajw in reply to BobD]

I am very happy for you. Can you believe if I say I had an episode just 10 minutes after I asked you the question! It lasted 90 minutes. I did some deep breathing during this time. I going to so my best to understand this and hopefully avoid ablation in the future. Thank you again.

[BobD Volunteer]

Of course.. Ectopics show on ECG as upside down T waves. AF is chaotic with no P wave. Stop trying to second guess it as this only increases worry and makes thing worse. If you go into AF then you will really know it.

Bob

PS HOLTER not halter. by the way.

[Therealsue]

Thank you Bob. I also have been having a load of ectopics recently and always worry about whether it's the return of my little friend AF. But I don't feel like it's hard work to climb the stairs and I can go out running with no problem, so I have to assume they're ectopics. It's hard to differentiate them sometimes, though. Stress always brings on ectopics for me and I'm a little stressed at the moment.

[anneliz]

I also get lots of ectopics since my AF stopped. Sorry to tell you Bob that I do get symptoms when I get ectopics. Not dissimilar to AF but not nearly so bad. But symptoms nonetheless. Whether that's caused by the anxiety when the ectopics start or the ectopics themselves does not really matter. The symptoms are there and they are real and it can be quite distressing.

[porsche]

Im another ectopic beater! On my last echo it showed I have 5 ectopic to one heart beat all the time, I can feel them 24/7.

[paulh1]

The reason I brought this up is that over the last few weeks I've been fairly ectopic free until Friday night. Don't think I was stressed just went to grandsons ball game but I did have two pieces of rather heavy pizza. I did notice a little later after that my heart started to flutter. I've been having regular ectopic episodes all weekend until this morning. It is a rather uncomfortable feeling but not as bad as a full blown Afib attack.

[nopely]

I must say....I am 6 weeks out from a PVI operation for afib. Pre-op, I could separate quite easily from afib, flutter, ectopics. Post-op was a very different story. What I thought was frequent ectopics (I didn't feel afib symptomatic, and it didn't feel irregular) was infact afib. I let it go 5 days before an ecg proved me wrong.

Afib is an individual symptomatic experience. My advise is to always get it looked at if you feel 'out of sorts' - regardless of what you think it is