Kardia Reading

[jsheard]

Hi all,I am in persistent AF,on bisoprolol,warfarin and other BP medications,my Kardia result reading is always (possible AF) looking at my reading below can anybody tell me if there is a P wave and is it important to have one.I sent a result off once to Kardia and it came back as unreadable ,sending all you lovely people good wishes.

[Girlie32]

By definition there are no p waves in af, but you can get small "p activity" looking waves which are termed coarse fibrillory waves.

The ventricular rhythm is irregular so this is af.

Why do you want to know about p waves?

[jsheard in reply to Girlie32]

Hello ,reading past posts I thought a P wave was important to have on a ECG ,what exactly is a P wave and what does it mean,many thanks for your reply.

[BobD Volunteer in reply to jsheard]

The p wave is the small lump before the big spike but in reality Kardia never shows one if you hold it in your hands. In AF there isn't a p wave. I'm told if you place on chest or one hand and one knee you may see it.. Very obvious on a proper ECG machine. AF is usually much more irregular and chaotic and also usually much higher rate than yours. One thing which sometimes does confuse is that ECG is often different from males to females as the magnitude of the spikes is much smaller with females than males.

Just to further confuse you the various parts of the wave form shown on ECG are P Q R S and T waves but probably best not to get too detailed before I run out of talent.

[jsheard in reply to BobD]

Many thanks for your reply Bob yes it can get quite confusing i.e. Why are female spikes smaller than males etc,I'm a bit wiser now many thanks

[BobD Volunteer in reply to jsheard]

Really do not know but when I borrowed a more complex machine a year or so back for random testing during Heart Rhythm Week I had to tell it what gender I was testing or it got confused.

[Buffafly in reply to BobD]

My husband's Kardia trace is absolutely classic, shows all the waves just as they ought to be including P wave. I have ECG envy 😬

[Hidden in reply to Buffafly]

Ditto.

[giitus in reply to BobD]

My Kardia always shows p wave if am not in AFIB when I am holding it in my hands. I can also see U wave if my hr below 60.

[BobD Volunteer in reply to giitus]

Yours must be a lot newer than my original which has never shown p waves. They told me about the hand / knee thing at the time.

[moonman272 in reply to BobD]

the shape of the ECG depends on your heart placement. Single lead will look like it does on the kardia, even if its a big machine. The secondary placement youve tried is meant to create a different lead path, and therefore show different positioning of your heart. Usually the result is a nice bigol qrs complex for people that have poor look with hand based single lead.

[Girlie32 in reply to jsheard]

A p wave represents a coordinated atrial contraction, so is absent in af. The qrs ventricular contraction

[David472]

With afib, atria do not pre-load heart ventricles, so no “atrial kick”(Starlings law). Heart output is low, ejection fraction is low, rate control essential, as fast rate, as approach 150, means not enough time to remove CO2 and acids, replenish O2 and nutrients, so heart muscle will degenerate. Remodeling happens, area expand, heart cells lose mitochondria and lose contractile fibers(actin/myosin). Body diverts blood flow away from skeletal muscle and digestive system. Muscle remodel, eating a lot causes fermentation, bloating. Tire easily, short of breath quickly, generally weak and no endurance, less myoglobin stored O2, lower blood cell hemoglobin O2(O2 sat).Takes months after drug or electrical cardio version to exercise per MD guidelines and slowly reverse remodel heart and body muscle, regain normal digestion. Low blood supply to stomach and liver and pancreas means cannot put out enzymes and chemicals from liver