heart rate almost flat lining during exercise

[kitenski]

I’ve been in AFib for years, had 2 ablations in 2019, but it came back in 2021, been on bisprolol and flecainide ever since. Due to very cold hands over winter we tried different drugs in consultation with the arrhythmia nurses.

none worked well so back on Bisoporol and recently increased the dose to 2.5mg twice daily and upped the flecainide to 100mg twice daily after many discussions with the nurses.

I’m now seeing something really weird when I jog or cycle, even really easy exercise makes my heart rate jump to mid 120s and then almost stay locked in at that rate. It hardly drops and doesn’t increase as effort ramps up or down.

I’ve not seen this before, wondering if anyone else has?

I’ve other associated oddities included higher resting and walking avg heart rate. I’m awaiting a consultation appointment.

The pic is from an indoor cycle this lunchtime which varied quite a bit in intensity. The small drops in the attached are when it stopped cycling completely to see if the hr dropped.

[mjames1]

Definitely could be the increased dose of the Flecainide and/or Bisoprolol.

My exercise HR is also not as responsive to exertion on these drugs as it was before. The US protocol is to take an ekg one week after any increase in Flecainide dosage to make sure you're tolerating the higher dose. If you haven't had that done, that might be a place to start and depending on what it looks like, they may or may not want to do an exercise stress test and/or other tests.

Jim

[Jajarunner]

My heart rate is usually 110-120 when I run. Resting HR higher after ablation too. Check it with arrhythmia nurses just to be safe though ❤️

[Speed in reply to Jajarunner]

That’s quite a low HR for running - are you on beta blockers? BBs destroyed my ability to do even moderate running.

My testing HR was up 10 bpm post 2nd ablation and remains do 18 mths later.

[RoyMacDonald]

I had that when I was on those drugs and when I complained about it to my consultant he told me I could stop them if I didn't like the way they worked. So I've only been on Apixaban ever since. 4 years now but I'm very careful with my diet to minimise my symptoms. Most of the time my heart rate is normal. You need to assess your priorities carefully though and seek more professional advice than I can give.

All the best.

Roy

[kitenski in reply to RoyMacDonald]

interesting Roy, isn’t that an anti-coagulant drug vs an arrhythmia and rate control drug?

[Fryguy]

Good morning, I believe I have a bit of the same thing happen to me and I think our HRV or heart rate variability is affected by our ablations ? I have an app to measure it and mine always has very litte variability.