I’m taking 50mg of flecainide twice a day and 1.25mg of bisoprolol once a day. Played golf this morning and then prepared to celebrate (no alcohol as I’m teetotal) the jubilee by hosting a bbq for around 10. Never really stopped all day and then took my dose of flec at 4pm and around 5.20pm developed what felt like atrial flutter with a heart rate of 140. Never had this before. Normally take my bisoprolol at 9pm but took it when I had the attack.
Two of my daughters witnessed my problem which included extremely high temperature and the shakes and phoned 999. Seemed to revert to NSR after half an hour or so just before the first responder arrived. Given that it was my heart that was the issue they took me to A&E (where I am now). Obviously the hospital is heaving and I haven’t had a visit from the doctor yet 41/2 hours later.
My question is please ; could the flecainide have caused the flutter even though I’m on a small dose of bisoprolol. Does anyone have any experience of this please and what was prescribed please
Thanks in advance
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Profound15
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Hi there, I would t have thought the Flecanide wouldnt start a flutter. I take 200mg a day. Thought I would treat myself to a takeaway very rare for me but will probably take another 100mg before bed. I was just finishing apiece of cheesecake and thought here we go. I could feel it in my neck. Now I do t get on with bisoprolol and was changed to verapamil which I find amazing. Have you had an extra busy day today. Or worried about something. How long have you been an AF sufferer? I’ve had it since 2010. I always sit it out at home unless really really bad. Hope you see a doctor soon and that you feel better soon. It will pass. Do lots of breathing exercises and try and keep calm.You will be fine. X
I’ve had af since December 2017 and had a number of echos which have shown my ticker to be fine. Why did you change to verapamil Aflutter is a known side effect of taking flecainide I’ve read.
HHi there, with the bisoprolol I could hardly walk. I would walk for Ten minutes then have to stop. My breathing was awful. I hardly have any turns now.
Yes. Flecainide can cause flutter and that's why you've been instructed to take bisoprolol along with it. If it's aflutter the rate suggests 2:1 conduction, which is what I used to get. The more worrisome type is faster.
That said, it also could be atach or even afib and unless you catch it with an ecg on a device like the Kardia or Apple Watch, can be hard to tell. In any event, good move to take that extra bisoprolol.
Are you still running a fever? Fever and shakes are usually not the case with arrythmia's in my experience.
If so, I imagine they will check you out, including a Covid test or you can test yourself if you have a home antigen test. If you have Covid, that could account for triggering the episode.
Thank you. It’s been a hectic day today and I did think I took enough water on board. Perhaps not enough. My temperature subsided a while after I went in to NSR and I’m fine now. I think it was the wrong move to go to A&E as they are heaving. They forgot to take my bloods when I arrived and I’m here five hours later. I’m going to discharge myself as I feel better now and there’s more deserving cases than me. I’ve checked out for covid and I’m fine. I’ve also recorded the episode on my kardia mobile and it looks awfully like flutter as the spaces are pretty consistent. Strange that it happened after taking my flecainide.
Yes, you don't want to be in the A&E if you don't need to be there. Since you have the ecg Kardia tracing, your doctor should be able to tell you exactly what was going on and put it in perspective. Sounds like things resolved. I've had one or two fluttery looking afib episodes while on flecainide.
As to Covid, based on what you said, I'd err on the side of caution and keep taking your temperature for a day or so. Anything but normal, I'd do another antigen test. You can have Covid on day one, test negative on day 1 and 2 and then test positive on day 3.
Hey there - apart from temperature and sweats that does sound like flutter although as my top mate Jim says, your Doctor would need to take a look at the Kardia reading. I'm in the early days with Flecanide and I'm pretty sure it's been causing flutter. Because my resting HR is low my cardiologist initially did not put me on a beta blocker but I requested it so I'm starting on a really low dose. As far as the flecainide goes I started on 100mg 3 times a day and was getting AFib/flutter almost daily (resolved in 2 hours or less). So I slowly reduced it to 150mg per day and have been AFib and flutter free (quite a lot of ectopics but that's OK). I've also noted that if I need to PIP I only need 100mg rather than 200mg that I was originally prescribed. It's all about the right combination for your particularly needs I think.
Does the ECG show the sawtooth? Not an expert but i I was told this was the flutter indicator by the person doing my heart echocardiogramme after my diagnosis. The sawtooth showed below. Flutter is also regular beats despite being fast.google.com/search?q=atrial+...
Had a look at the ecg on my kardia and it does look a bit like a sawtooth but not as pronounced in the one I viewed on line. It’s a regular pattern but with one ‘tooth’ between the spikes. Or at least that’s what it appears to me. Thanks for your post.
Mine wasn’t thankfully. Got an appt with cardio tomorrow now so will get things clarified. I’m thinking over exertion and dehydration on the day which triggered it. The ecg printout shows regular tachycardia with occasional af. Don’t know what that means but cardio should advise
I am taking Atenolol twice a day Cardiologist wants to to start Flecainide 50 gm also. I am so afraid to start as had so many side effects when on Digoxin, ipratropium, and Three others.
Thanks Bob. Been taking the beta blocker religiously and it looks like I still had a flutter episode. It probably lasted 20 to 30 minutes. Will contact my cardio and see what he says
Like KM Robbo said, The beta blocker will not necessarily stop flutter but hopefully will limit the rate. Also the classic sawtooth pattern is not always present in flutter but the rate will be even.
The kardia clinical report came back and advised that it was profound tachycardia so really confused now. It mentioned atrial fibrillation as well but it didn’t feel like that at all. If what I’ve read is correct tachycardia can be brought on by over exertion which I would say I did (never stopped after playing a round of golf). Any idea why they use the term profound please??
I can only guess that they are using the term "profound" to distinguish against a tachycarida at a lower HR.
Tachycardia just means your heart is beating over 100 per minute. That means both afib and aflutter, among other arrhythmia's can be tachycardia's. So I don't understand why they mentioned both profound tachycardia and afib, unless either that is how their reports are generated and/or they saw both afib and a different type of tachycardia in the 30 second strip you sent them. Since you paid, I would ask them to clarify.
As to what you read re tachycardia, if it's brought on by exertion, say playing tennis, that is appropriate tachycardia because it a normal response to exercise and expected.
I'll also add that sometimes distinguishing afib from aflutter from SVT from Atach on a single lead ecg like generated by the Kardia can be challenging to even the best ep's.
Thanks Jim. I’ve kind of been reassured as I did do too much yesterday. Full round of golf and not a slow round either then prepared for a street jubilee bbq. Was almost running between the bbq out front and my kitchen at the back. I was sweating so I’ve pushed it too much at my age I think. I’ll see what my cardio says though. Thanks for your input it’s much appreciated
Well, that would have done it for me. LOL. Let us know what your cardio says but don't be surprised if he just shakes his head without a firm diagnosis and tells you to take it a little easier and stay hydrated.
I think the answer is yes in your case. Biso is normally prescribed to be taken with Flec to prevent developing AFl, although I couldn’t tolerate Biso or any other rate drug so took it without - and developed Flutter and some other arrythmias.
Please be very careful using these very powerful drugs and overdoing things. The 2 conditions I have been blessed (irony) with have both been about pacing myself.
My record of sitting in A&E without being seen or triaged by anyone was 9 hours, by which time I was back in NSR. Irony was that they wouldn’t let me go until they had done an ECG.
Hope your release papers come through more quickly. Take care.
Bad luck indeed and very worrying, I expect but, as always with trial arrhythmias, it likely felt worse than it was. I was wondering if it was definitely atrial flutter which typically produces a pulse rate that is in a fixed stepwise ratio of the atrial beat of ~300, thus: 150 / 100 / 75 / 60, etc. Mine was 155, for example, before treatment, then 105 with bisoprolol (5mg) and finally 60 with digoxin.
I had similar thing in London Feb this year I was left out in the cold for 40 minutes and was getting angry at 6oc in morning, got indoors went to bed for 4 hours was OK then 6pm started to have uncontrollable shakes thought I was gonna die ambulance to hospital turns out blood pressure went through the roof atter 5 hours went home been OK since, I don't take bisoprolol since May 21 as well as AF have brattycardia as sometimes my pulse was 40BPM so now only on 3mg warfarin a day, I think so many things can trigger our conditions, we eat early now an I have a couple of half pints 2 or three times a week, hope you get sorted
I’d get a KardiaMobil ecg device. Hopefully you’ll be in nsr when they ecg you. I find the knowledge that I can ecg myself whenever I feel something is up, very reassuring.
I am on the same dosage as you for SVT (not sure if I have AF I will find out during ablation) sometimes exhersion brings this on. I had same attack as your self in the middle of the night. Spoke to my cardio a day later and no follow up. I too felt absolutely dreadful. No more attacks since. Hope you get home soon, you sound a lot better.
I was given Flecainide for my AFlutter and it helped me tremendously.Your fever and shaking is of concern as I doubt it could be flutter causing it.
When I first started on Flecainide at 100mg x 2 it caused fever and shaking with heart arrhythmias. This diminished after about 3 weeks and I was then totally back to normal.
My wife and kids often thought I was about to die that's how bad it was.
Slept ok when I got home at 0200 as was absolutely shattered. All my bloods and X-ray came back normal which was a relief. As I managed to get the attack recorded on my kardia I’ve paid for the medical analysis from them. I’ll also make an appointment to see my cardio so I get advice of what to do in the event of another episode (god willing it doesn’t happen). Thank you for all your advice and support it’s very much appreciated.
I was prescribed Flec at 50 mg twice a day. It caused several arrhythmias even though on beta blocker also. I couldn’t tolerate it so my EP put me on it as a PIP. It works wonders that way. I’m glad all is worked out for for you now.
Thank you much appreciated. I’ve been on flec for a year and a half. Been all fine up to yesterday but I think extreme activities and dehydration hasn’t helped
Hi Profound15, I had exactly the same problem with flecainide. I had more attacks of very fast heart rate than I did when I was first diagnosed! Apparently flecainide can cause pro-arrythmia. Paid to go and see an EP and he changed me straight away to Sotalol, removing the flecainide and bisoprolol.
Thanks Karen. Will book an appointment with my cardio on Monday and see what he says. I got the kardia clinical report and it came back as profound tachycardia so need to understand what that means.
Thanks Mike not sure. Contacted my cardio and sent him the clinical report from kardia. He advised me that he agreed the ecg shows af and that we should meet. I thought that being on the maintenance dose would prevent me from getting afib again so I’m really disappointed and wonder where I go from here
HiAs long as flec is taken with a beta blocker of some kind you should be ok. ( In my experience)
Far more likely to be dehydration I think in this case or possibly a hidden infection going on. Our bodies just trundle along sorting background stuff out,and only when the troops fail,do we notice infection symptoms .
Every time I get/ got an infection or dehydration either afib or Afl kick off.
After ablation for both last week we shall see as all calm now.
Thanks Wilsond. Hope your ablation continue to resolve your issues. I’ve been contemplating an ablation to allow me to stop the medication but they’ve been working well up till Saturday. Having said that I went back into NSR within 20minutes or so which I guess is down to the flec etc
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