Skipping Beats

[JohnCanada]

So my Afib seems to be under control under my current medication which is Sotalol. But what seems to be happening lately is my heart will skip beats. Happens for hours and then stops on its own. Totally normal rate at around 70bpm but skips beats occasionally. Doesn’t really stop me from doing anything but is noticeable and annoying. Is this just another form of Afib? Had the same issue last year when I was on Flecanide.

[BobD Volunteer]

These are ectopic beats. Quite a normal thing but annoying when frequent. Not generally harmful. If you search (top right) Deep breathing for Ectopics there is a great exercise which is most helpful .

[pottypete1]

Yes Ectopics.

I am on Flecainide and get them every day.

Wish they would go away but better than AF.

Pete

[Hidden in reply to pottypete1]

Pete...are your ectopics lasting just a few minutes or continuous.? I'm asking because I've never really found that I suffered much from them, or at least been unaware, until last week when I parked up and went off down the road on foot and was aware of being a bit breathless and rapid heartbeat.

I was able to sit down on bench and took the good old Kardia out to see what was going on. Heart rate 94 unclassified. Similar readings over few hours.

I had this analysed by Kardia and it came back as multiple atrial ectopics.....see your physician within 24 hrs. Well it had gone by then. It looks like these were continuous. Is this quite common to have ectopics like this? I'm due to see my EP next month .

I had just been saying how well I have since starting on mag taurate 5+ weeks ago and now tachycardia has resumed. 😩

Hope you are keeping well

Sandra

[Finvola]

Ectopics as others have said - unpleasant things but we are told they are harmless in a structurally normal heart.

As I have been plagued with them recently, I decided to drive myself nuts and try to figure out any reason for them. Came up with three possibilities - stress/anxiety, eating something I shouldn’t have and just because they are there.

Sometimes mild exertion stops them, most often the breathing exercise does the trick and sometimes nothing works - especially if they are caused by something dietary.

Dr Sanjay Gupta has made some excellent short videos about them and if you put Gupta ectopics into the search box, you’ll find them.

[pottypete1]

Mine tend to come in phases. I will go for hours and then out of the blue I get this nausea and I feel breathless for maybe five minutes.

For months now I have not had any AF just fast runs or missed beats.

I find it scary as the feeling is just like it I used to feel when AF started before. However I still stay in NSR.

I have never had the “luxury” of a Kardia so not sure what continuous would indicate. That almost back in the dreaded AF if caotic or Tachycardia if still NSR

As always maybe you should ask your EP when you next see him/her next month.

Pete

[MS444 in reply to pottypete1]

I had an ablation 20 months ago and get exactly as you describe. Out of the blue I might get ectopic beats and in amongst that a rare run of rapid beats. like a burst of machine gun fire. The ectopic beats feel like a missed beat and can occur onece a minute when it's happening. Then back to normal. But my NSR doesn't seem quite as "steady" as it was pre ablation. It used to be rock solid resting 60 bpm during the day and 46 bpm in bed at night. Now at night it might get to 58bpm and during the day it is 65-72 bpm.

[pottypete1 in reply to MS444]

At least you are in NSR and those rates don’t sound bad at all.

I am 55 during the resting day and 48 early morning by the same criteria.

Pete

[Visitingcat in reply to MS444]

Your post really caught my eye as I get the “machine gun” thing as well.

It used to happen a lot but is very rare now. I’d love to know what this is.

l had a successful cardio version about 3 years ago from persistent af with just a few bad episodes lasting about 30-40 hours since, so a vast improvement for me.

I bought a kardia to try and see what was going on in my episodes as a couple of times I felt like I was going to faint but the machine gun runs and the fainting feeling are over before I can use the kardia.

I’ll sometimes use my kardia as my heart feels lumpy but not like af and it will sometimes show two spikes very close together, a few or a little run and will say unclassified, I wondered if this was ectopic beats or if there was a term for this?

I don’t see a cardiologist any more as he discharged me to care of my gp. I just have a scan every couple of years for a leaky valve, I’ll try asking when I have the next one (due February).

[Hidden in reply to Visitingcat]

Visitingcat if you send your Unclassified reading to Kardia they will elaborate...they diagnosed my continuous very strong beats( machine gun like!) as multiple atrial ectopics.

[Visitingcat in reply to Hidden]

Thank you Yatsura, next time I get an unclassified reading I’ll send it in. Unfortunately though, I’ve never been able to get a machine gun run on my kardia. They are over very quickly and happen very rarely.

I mentioned them to my cardioversion nurse as she was discharging me, as I had had a few of them around that time and she arranged a 48 hr monitor and of course nothing happened. I never had any info back from it.

Do you know what brings yours on and are they one of the many things that we just have happen to us and are not really to be worried about?

[BobD Volunteer in reply to MS444]

"Normal" resting heart rate is anything from 60 to 100 bpm. but typically around 70.

Below 60 is considered bradycardia and above 100 tachycardia.

Athletes may have slower rates.

[Jong1945 in reply to BobD]

Also, slow heart rates tend to indicate a strong vagal drive, such as well-trained athletes achieve, but also gastric problems. My resting HR is 56, but drops well below 50 if I have gastric pain

[JohnCanada]

Thank You all for replies. Very helpful.

[Thomps95]

I was dogged by them for years. Then I doubled my magnesium intake from what I assumed was the largest dose to begin with. Incredibly, they disappeared. I still get them every once in a while, but only about once per month lasting about 2-3 hours, often in the afternoon.

[Jong1945]

Have a look at Dr Sanjay Gupta's Youtube videos on ectopics. The man is a gem. Search Youtube's own search for "sanjay gupta ectopics". Ectopics with paroxysmal AF or having had AF & an ablation is not quite the same as ectopics for someone who has no other heart issues - everyone gets them to some extent - but a lot of the info he has on his videos is still applicable to those of us who have / have had AF. Interestingly he found evidence from some journal papers that Magnesium supplementation does definitely work to help quell ectopics in quite a large proportion of patients - in spite of the fact the serum magnesium level does not change - it's the intra cellular levels that matter.

[Samuel68]

Ive had them for years, they do suck but im still kicking. I notice when i fatigued or overly stressed they are the worst but i go through periods i wont have them for months on end. I use my kardia mobile to check them now and know that its not afib