AF or not?

I had a fairly stressful day yesterday and started to get lots of ectopics in the early evening. I decided to take my usual 2nd Sotalol of the day a bit early at 2030 and take a few Kardia readings. Some of these came back as normal with a bpm in the mid- seventies (my usual reading would be about 65) but one reading came back with 84 bpm and showed “unclassified”. For literally a a couple of seconds Kardia showed 113 bpm when I put my fingers on the device but jumped down to 83 immediately, so I am not sure if this was just a response to a couple of ectopics.By about 2130 my pulse slowed down to a rate of about 62 and the ectopics ceased more or less. My question is: was this basically a bout of AF which was suppressed by the Sotalol or was it just a bout of ectopics?

[SpritzerAce]

Hi there ! I can totally relate to what you are experiencing as I too had more or less the same episode with similar readings picked up by Kardia. However I am not able to tell you if those unclassified readings are just bouts of ectopics or short bursts of AF. Obviously I am not medically trained. But what I normally do is send the Kardia to my EP for her to interpret. Only an expert will know for sure if it’s AF, flutter or just bouts of ectopics or Atrial Tachycardia. Many a time my unclassified or No Analysis report was not even an episode of AF. If you subscribe to Kardia premium thingy you can get them to review the ECG for you. But glad to know that your heart settled well in the end.

[Hidden in reply to SpritzerAce]

Yes, it’s very frustrating. I might send the unclassified off to the GP.

[Hidden]

It’s taken a while, but I have learned not to use my Kardia unless I have sustained symptoms. I find it a useful tool, but with the potential to increase my anxiety. Holter monitoring over a prolonged period will give you much more useful information about the minor blips you describe.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for the reply. I am due to have a 3 day holter in early January after repeatedly requesting it. I would have preferred a longer one.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I'm with Oyster, I've had my kardia for a while and have had some odd results.

I have even sent some worrying readings off, only to be told that everything is normal.

It's now at the back of the drawer of doom

Anyone want to buy a kardia?

[higgy52 in reply to Hidden]

Yes you can get Paranoid keep checking all the time,