I was at ERI today because pesky bigeminy is causing me issues again but I was really pleased to hear they’ve been back training to do hybrid mini maze, working with atricure.
So hopefully not too long until surgical ablation will be available in Scotland on the NHS for those that really need it. It made my day 🙌🙌
hi Alison, did you have this bigeminy when you had your procedure in London with Mr Hunter? Is it something he would sort or are you waiting /going for ablation? X
Hi Afibflipper, I wasn’t aware of it when I had afib. After my mini maze I had a few attacks of bigeminy with adrenaline then it settled down. It’s been a pest again since February. I’m quite symptomatic with it. It’s not something a surgical ablation can fix, it would be catheter. For normal bigeminy (every second beat is a PVC) there is a really high success rate for catheter ablation 70% plus, but I have to be different and mine is coming from deep in the heart where a catheter doesn’t work coz the muscle is a couple of cms thick. At this stage I’m not sure of next steps, I’m reading 
I will definitely ask Mr Hunter for his view too.
Have you ever tried magnesium taurate? Since I go the 8week AF last Oct (following flu vac) I have used it and I myself swear that converted me & been fine since touch wood. I also realised that, 2 years running I had the flu vac at the same time. In 2023 it also coincided with a bad stair fall. Af lasted 4 months & then miraculously went. This time was 4 days post flu vac but then 2 days later I got a chest infection also. However, like you from my own research I now feel that the vaccine causes me an inflammatory response, as such my lungs get congested (I do have heart failure now but control with Furosemide) so I feel the lungs & heart get irritated (same as with infection or virus) & leads to AF. I now take Zinc, vitamins, cherry caps, Mag Taur’ to keep boosting immune, I need all year round antihistamine but this year, with all that I have not been allergic to the spring pollens from daffodils etc (a usual trigger) and thing just seem altogether different. I have a heart rate of 59-62 overnight (unknown) rarely go above 100!!! (Unknown)
Hope you manage to sort it soon x
Bless you, glad you are managing to identify triggers.
I started taking magnesium taurate a month ago and I’ve upped my potassium rich foods again too.
I never had vaccines this year, the first year I haven’t coz I usually do.
keep in mind it took me over 6 mths to get my Mg levels up taking 330mg a day of a combo of Taurate and Glycinate but i too have reduced my ectopics from 2-3 times a week to 1-2 times a month and they usually go after a few minutes
I’m not having next years. Strangely ( hope I’m not jinxing myself) last year I had holiday vaccinations & was fine, I’m having them again in a few days 😱 hope I don’t this year also. Take care
I wonder whst is a worrying rate of bigemy and trigemy on a 24 hour monitor
I’m sure I’ll be told what a safe burden is after my 5 day halter coming up. I’ll let you know. From what I have read under 10% is harmless. I am in PVCs between a third and half the day. I’m usually in NSR in the morning and it comes on early afternoon. Calms down overnight if it doesn’t trigger tachycardia with PVCs late at night which can happen and lands me in A&E.
From what I have read, and that was a while back now, I thought the success rate for ablating ectopic beats was dependent on where the ectopic beats arise. Those with a single focus can be ablated (although that depends where the focus is); those with a multiple or variable foci are much more difficult if not impossible to ablate.
My own bigeminy is a part of my AF so far as I have been told, and it looks and feels that way in that when my AF starts it's much like the ectopics "joining up". These must arise in the atrium, therefore, as PACs even though my home ECG devices like to label them as PVCs on occasions. Are yours "true" PVCs, i.e. arising from ectopic foci in the ventricles? If so, will they ablate the ventricles?
Steve
Hi Steve, 5 day ECG coming up but from my 6 lead Kardia readings they are arising deep in the muscle rather than higher in the ventricle. The muscle is 2.5cm deep there and so an ablation won’t be successful.
Gosh - that’s an impressive ECG analysis!
Bigeminy and similar, because of the bigger irregular “thump” causes me more angst than my AF these days, which kind of purrs along at about 100-140bpm, and not too symptomatic if I stay reasonably inactive.
Is yours troublesome?
Steve
Yes, it makes me light headedness as well as the unnerving bumps. I’ve only had it in the past with adrenaline so this is really unusual for me. As Bob says behind one arrhythmia there’s another one hiding!
When I had my first ablation for flutter, the EP told me that one consequence is that AF might be "uncovered". Well, within a week, probably caused by stopping my bisoprolol too soon (on the EP's advice), I had my first and worst episode. Then all was well for year before ectopics and tachycardia started, following that the slow progression to now which is daily ectopic beats and fortnightly or so AF.
I have always wondered whether ablations themselves might lay the foundations for further arrhythmias, yet doubt it; but, who knows? The process of ablating is a very odd thing to do to a sensitive part of the heart, and the exact mechanism of action seems less well known than we might think.
I am pleased that my AF symptoms are not too bad and just force me to take things easier till it's over. The ectopic beats, like yours, cause a light head and some brain fog, and give me a strange need to take deeper breaths. I have LBBB, too, and that seems to be part of the problem.
I do hope, having gone through quite a lot yourself and having had such a successful procedure that this can be dealt with.
Steve
oh honey, I am so sorry to hear you also are having issues like I said a fib does what it wants sending you lots of healing prayers. I am about to meet a new PE my incredible unfortunately has left the but it’s good for him. He is now director of the university of Florida heart hospital for someone just barely in their 40s I think he is doing incredible things. I think I have found a diamond again for a doctor though I hope so because I need him. It’s been two years since I got the pacemaker and I was doing incredible until I got sick in November. Life changes in a heartbeat, but we are not giving up right?
several things have come up in here and I thought of you and wondered if you saw them because of things you had been through I don’t come on here very often like I used to so much is going on in my own world to deal with
thinking of you your positivity taught me how to be like that. Thank you for being you.
Oh I do hope you get back to being incredible Dawn.
I dip in now and again and when people kindly tag me I respond.
I’m lucky to not have had any afib, since mini maze. bigeminy is sinus rhythm with PVCs, mine are coming from deep in the heart muscle not the traditional ventricle spot so they cause me difficulty and they’ve been having a party since February!!
Thanks MummyLuv - being in Scotland this is great to hear.
I know it’s fab. They started the training before then put it on hold but back at it and almost complete, working with atricure.
Hope all is well for you otherwise x
Pvc's are the norm for me but I've never been offered any cure,wonder if it's becauce I'm asymptomatic ?
Flecainide question for persistent AFib
Newly diagnosed persistent AFib
