weird Kardia ecg

[Tilly1957]

went into af just before midnight, but was dozing on and off and thought it would be gone by morning. Well it hasn’t, so I have just used my single lead Kardia and the ecg shows like this! I have never had it like this, only erratic rate with pretty smooth bits in between, if that makes sense. I am asking for an explanation of what the pattern may mean, not a diagnosis. I am about to take my pip (verapamil) oh, and there is nothing near me that would cause any interference when taking the reading. Thank you.

[Drounding]

It might be a low battery in your Kardia. See here: healthunlocked.com/afassoci...

[Tilly1957 in reply to Drounding]

I did wonder, as I have had it for about 5 years now, thank you .

[BobD Volunteer]

Try using hand sanitizer before using. Looks like bad contact.

[Tilly1957 in reply to BobD]

Thank you. Will do….. although I am definitely in AF, no doubt of that 🤣 x

[FancyPants54 in reply to Tilly1957]

My Apple Watch does that when I don't have it strapped up tight, so yes, bad contact. I'm in constant AF so I, like you, first saw this and panicked. I just need to do the watch up another hole and make sure I don't lift it up when I hold my finger on it.

[Tilly1957 in reply to FancyPants54]

Thank you. I am using the Kardia as I have done for the last 5 years…. I have just given my hands a good wash as BobD suggested and I am going to look at changing the battery as Drounding suggested. The Kardia showed ‘good signal’ on the little icon 🤣 I would love an Apple Watch but far too expensive for me.

[splashrollandplod in reply to Tilly1957]

My cardiologist suggested a Kardia 6L is much better than an Apple Watch, not sure about those Frontier things

[Tilly1957 in reply to splashrollandplod]

Interesting, thank you

[Drounding]

Not of great help perhaps but there are a few pointers here on the Kardia Support Site: alivecor.zendesk.com/hc/en-...

[Tilly1957 in reply to Drounding]

Thank you, I will get a battery and replace. It didn’t come up as ‘unreadable’, it showed ‘possible Af’

[momist]

That looks to me more like electrical interference of some kind. Was your phone/tablet doing something else at the same time, such as backing up or updating? Were you near some electrical equipment that was running, maybe a fan? (Microwave cookers are the worst!)Nevertheless, the irregular beat rate is clear.

[Tilly1957 in reply to momist]

Hi Mumist, thank you. No, phone not doing anything different to usual, not near any electrical stuff - I was doing it in the same place/position I have multiple tine over the years. I reckon it could be the battery running out. It has t had it replaced in 5 years! X

[frazeej in reply to Tilly1957]

That definitely looks like interference of some sort-just for the hell of it, you might try turning your phone completely off for a minute, then back on-cleans out a lot of "debris" in the background of the phone. Also make sure all the other apps are not running. I once had a most unusual ecg on my Kardia one lead-a very sharp peak right next to a QRS peak, about 5 times as high as the QRS! Holy cow!! Turned out it was my phone receiving a text message just as I was taking an ecg! Whew!

[Tilly1957 in reply to frazeej]

Nothing was any different to all the other times, but that’s interesting re incoming text showing on the ecg

[Tilly1957]

I like that word, ‘artifact’ (I I know what is meant by it) makes me think of the weird and wonderful world of ‘Warehouse 13’ 🤣

[Anello111]

Afib with artifact

[Tilly1957 in reply to Anello111]

Thank you x

[Poochmom]

That sawtooth pattern looks like aflutter to me. But it could also be the battery.

[Tilly1957 in reply to Poochmom]

The second half of the ecg settled down to just normal afib, then the one I did later did the same thing with the erratic stuff. After this one i took my pip.

Black & white

[Tilly1957 in reply to Poochmom]

Also, what does flutter feel like?

[Poochmom in reply to Tilly1957]

Flutter is a more regular beat but fast. It doesn’t jump around. When I had AFib one minute my hr would be 160 then the next 75. And it was irregular beats. Flutter is more like tachycardia. And the ecg will have a sawtooth pattern with regular timed beats.

[Poochmom in reply to Poochmom]

Also it did feel like AFib kind of to me but when I sent the ecg to my doctor he confirmed it was flutter.

[Tilly1957 in reply to Poochmom]

Thank you - fingers crossed it’s just ‘cos it needs a new battery! I did read somewhere you can have both at the same time 😱🤣

[Poochmom in reply to Tilly1957]

Yeah anything that bigger AF can do to screw us up! Ugh

[ETHEL103 in reply to Poochmom]

That's what I thought tho the hr is 91.Mine was 140 ish .

[ozziebob]

I would give consideration to DrDave01's Reply, as I believe he was involved in the design of the Kardia devices.Bob

[Tilly1957 in reply to ozziebob]

Yes, I am. Getting a new battery as it had never been changed in about 5 years. Thank you