Does Fleconide cause "flutter"?

[OldSarge]

I have been on Fleconide for about three years. My Afib is presently under control. What I notice is that about an hour after I take my pill I get erratic heartbeats for a while, then things return to normal. Is this something others notice?

[Finvola]

I've been taking Flecainide for almost three years and have had short runs of rapid regular heartbeat at around 130bpm for about 15 minutes. These have occurred randomly and I was able to catch a few of them on my Kardia.

My EP said they were AFlutter caused by Flecainide which can organise the rogue signals into AFlutter. He didn't seem particularly worried about them but, strangely enough, when I tried to reduce my 2 x 100mg dose to 2 x 75mg, the occurrence of them was almost daily. Since going back up to 200mg about a year ago, they haven't recurred.

[OldSarge in reply to Finvola]

Thank you. I also take 200mg a day.

[jedimasterlincoln]

Flecanide has always been a bit weird for me. I had it IV in the early days to slow a fast AF but it never worked.

For a few months (up until last week) I'd been on 100mg twice a day as my pAF wasn't settling.....

But last week I was told to stop it as I had now developed a flutter.

[Hidden]

It gives me palpitations so I can't take it.

[Bagrat]

I had a few runs of tachycardia and after adding bisoprolol to my 100mg flecainide twice a day ( which I didn't tolerate), flecainide was slowly reduced to 50 mg twice daily and things generally better. I have always thought flecainide takes over two hours to reach maximum blood levels but I'm sure that depends on the individual and am equally sure the time it stays in the system is very individual too.

[Hidden]

I would see your cardiologist and discuss. This move to Flutter on Flecainide has been discussed before here and one contributor Thomps95 in Sydney was I think going in for an ablation last March because of it.

Do let us know how you get on, I have just passed my 3rd anniversary on 200mgs Flec/day.

[ILowe]

Dr Gupta in his video on Palpitations and Bisoprolol says that bisoprolol, even a small amount, is usually prescribed with flecainide because flecainide has a tendency to create irregularities. I have seen somewhere the idea that you start the day with bisoprolol, then add flecainide an hour later.

Too much flecainide can be the problem. Too little can be the problem.

[afibtennis]

I have been on Fleconide for about a year. No side effects so far!