What’s an acceptable rate?

[Fondant]

so I’m back in afib, doctor sent me home with 2.5mg of bisoprolol and also blood thinners. At moment my heart rate when not doing a lot (sitting down watching tv) is around 90-100bpm. Sometimes In the 70s and 80s and even lower 60s and possible 50s when asleep!

So basically I’d say my base rate is around 80-100 during day. Is this too high still? Nurse reckons I could go for higher dosage of bisoprolol, but not sure I need it. Feel absolutely fine and have no symptoms apart from the odd palpitation

thanks all, hope everyone is feeling well!

[Jalia]

Sounds OK. At least you are taking anticoagulants and feel fine so be thankful .

My husband is in permanent AF and completely unaware. His rate when I take it can be in the 80s . It could be anything in between but he is unconcerned. He is taking Rivaroxaban as an anticoagulant. I discovered his AF when he felt a bit odd after being prescribed a NSAID, namely Naproxen.

[Peony4575 in reply to Jalia]

Prescribed NSAID caused mine after two doses . You have to wonder if NSAIDs are a contributory cause of the high prevalence of AF in older people . So frequently prescribed

[BobD Volunteer]

Normal heart rate is between 60 and 100 so not a lot to worry about if you feel fine.

[Buzby62]

I can’t help wondering when I see this question and the answers, how are you measuring the highs and lows, from a device looking at individual beat rates or from an average over a period of time. When in AF the beat to beat measurements are jumping about with every beat so you may get a 120bpm (2 beats in a second) followed by a 3rd beat 2 seconds later (30bpm) which would be 3 beats in 3 seconds and bring the average to 60bpm which is fine. I’ve used these numbers just to illustrate my point but will unlikely be exactly that. I believe a lot of wearables and BP monitors can be inaccurate with their rates while in AF. My average rate on my Apple Watch while in AF is usually 60-90 but when I check there will be highs of maybe 130+ in there.

I’ve read before, advice to take your rate while in AF is to count your beats in 10 seconds and multiply by 6 to give an average because the shorter periods recorded instantly on devices will be up and down too much to mean anything.

Sometimes it is better to go with how you feel rather than get anxious about the numbers which can exacerbate the problem. Just a thought.

Hope this makes sense and is helpful.

[Jackiesmith7777 in reply to Buzby62]

That’s a really good explanation and makes a bit clearer for me as my husband is in permanent AF

[Jonathan_C]

I think you should be reassured by the replies here, as am I too. IMHO the most important thing you can control is the use of anticoagulants. Your heart rate is fine ... for an a-fiber!

[Ppiman]

A resting heart rate of 90-100, whilst not counted medically as tachycardia (i.e. persistently >100bpm), is higher than I can feel comfortable with. I only get it occasionally these days since I started with daily 1.25mg bisoprolol last March and it rarely lasts long, but before that, I would often take up to 2.5mg to slow it down to feel more comfortable. I think the nurse might be giving good advice. The problem is that a higher dose of beta-blocker might create side effects of its own, I suppose. If you have an Apple Watch or similar, you could look at the 24-hour rate to see what is happening. Mine drops to 48 quite often but with no symptoms.

The figure of 100bpm required for clinical tachycardia always struck me as a bit of guesswork by doctors. When I had fast AFl in 2019, with resting rates 105-155bpm, it led to a slightly leaky valve, which cleared after my ablation (I was told that such a finding is common and the cause was the persistent tachycardia). I would want to avoid that happening again if I could.

Steve

[fibnum]

If you are not already doing so, adding a daily exercise program might lower your HR some. That would be a healthier way, overall, to improve things.

Walking, swimming, biking or other activities could help.

Check with your doctor.

[Tuut19]

have always been suspicious about my prescription of daily 1.25 mg Bisoprolol. It looked like my Afib always started in the eves at rest watching tv when my pulse went down 38-45 bpm. On this forum I read about the PIP and I suggested to my GP to stop with the daily pill and only take the 1.25 mg PIP when I felt my Afib was starting and my Iwatch was giving me the Afib Warning. I now need the PIP once every 3 weeks and that stops the Afib within 2 hours (in the past that took 3-4 days). So a massive improvement.

[JOY2THEWORLD49]

hi

I WUD LOOK AT CCB DILTIZEN 120mg or less. not more BB.

cheers JOY

[JOY2THEWORLD49]

hi

when my bpm was controlled by CCB each time i had an operation linedup - not heart i was confroonted with "if your h/b is over 100 we will not do te operation.

for a year it was 88-96. then last nov dropped to 60s.

cheers joy

[Gertsen]

My EP says resting bpm up to 110 when in AF is ok for me. According to the letter sent to my GP it is mostly in the 90s lower when asleep.