Anyone Else?

[Wondrous_Walker]

Hi all,

Is there anyone else on here that has experience of atrial tachycardia? When it happens can be quite disconcerting!

[jeanjeannie50]

Yes me, I've suffered the effects of tachycardia. One day my heart rate stuck at 150bpm and I felt absolutely dreadful. Went to my doctors surgery, late morning and had an ECG and then was told to go home, take a second 100mg of Flecainide and if I hadn't reverted by late afternoon to go to A&E. Fortunately, I returned to normal sinus rhythm after about a further 3 hours. I've had atrial fibrillation and tachycardia for about 18 years. Not had any high rate recurrences since my 3rd ablation about 6 years ago and am now in constant AF with a heart rate between 60-90 which I can cope with.

How do your attacks present themselves?

Jean

[Wondrous_Walker in reply to jeanjeannie50]

hi, thanks so much for the reply. My Atrial Tachycardia kicked in last year with a couple of long episodes in the middle of the night. Calling 111 leads on to ambulance to A and E then back home when things settle. Apparently it doesn’t damage your heart, or do I’ve been informed by a cardiologist. I’m on Bisoprolol (5mg) which certainly helps shorten any instances of rapid heart beats but I do wonder if having a stroke at sometime in the future is more likely. The cardiologist also said that ablation is a possible option. It sounds like you’ve gone down that route more than once!

[Rostom]

Hi Wondrous_Walker

I have had Paroxysmal Atrial Tachycardia (known as PAT) for around twenty five years now.

As you can see from the name, I have episodes but they are frequent. Sometimes I am aware of them and sometimes not.

I wear Holter monitors and have an Echo stress test annually and had an Angiogram a few years ago after my heart threw a wobbly during a stress test.

Of course, my heart usually behaves impeccably during the Holter period (even a seven-day one) or during the stress tests (except for once, see above).

Wearing a Fitbit-type watch , I can see (although a very rarely bother to check) the peaks and troughs that my heart rate produces: it can soar to 200 and drop again after a few seconds or minutes but rarely longer.

I have been on a dose of Flecainide 100 mg twice daily for all of this time and can only tell you that I am still here!

These peaks are worrying as is occasionally feeling one's heart 'doing it's thing' but try to stay calm and... carry on. I was also told by my Consultant that I was (apparently!) fortunate to have PAT. I presume he meant compared to AF.

Keep taking the tablets, try not to worry (even when in bed and your heart is dancing around in your chest or throat) and you'll probably be here twenty-five years later, too!

Keep as well as you can.

Regards

[Wondrous_Walker in reply to Rostom]

hi Rostom, thanks for the reply; it sounds like you’re quite used to the unusual machinations of your heart! I must admit when my heart decides to have a quick burst of rapid heart beat then follow it by a few somersaults, it does feel really peculiar but I’ve learnt to either sit or lie quietly taking some slow, deep breaths. This helps to quiet my mind as much as anything else. I suppose I’ve always got the fact that my mum died of a stroke in the back of my mind although she was 83 by the time this happened. Thanks for the helpful words anyway!

[Rostom]

My mother also had a history of having strokes (yes, plural!), so no wonder this can be at the back of our minds. She was mid-eighties but actually passed away with another condition and you have to go some time (please, just not yet!).

Are you on a drug commonly known as 'blood thinners'? Often Apixiban or Rivaroxaban. With the combination of stroke familial history and atrial tachycardia, I began these (unwillingly at first but am now pleased that I have them) three or so years ago. These two, together with a statin should..... hopefully keep everything in arteries/veins/heart flowing smoothly.

It sounds as if you are doing what you should mentally when those thumps/racing beats begin; staying calm.

Incidentally, I was first diagnosed as, when fast asleep, I was sure that someone was banging furiously on the front door, several nights in succession Of course, it was PAT doing her thing! Perhaps I was fortunate that my GP took me seriously.

We are, apparently also 'fortunate' to have this type of arrhythmia!

Regards

Rostom

[Wondrous_Walker in reply to Rostom]

Hi, well, I think genetics is quite an important element in all this.

No, I'm not on blood thinners or anything like that just 5 mg of Bisoprolol per day and taking them has definitely reduced the length of time I will have fast/irregular heartbeats.

My journey to this point started three years ago when, after two years of badgering various medical professionals that, as a fit person, I shouldn't be getting out of breath after a short walk, I had an echocardiogram which showed a tumour in the left atrium of my heart. I must say they did get their skates on after its discovery and I was in Barts Hospital having open heart surgery to have it removed very rapidly. The fact that this all happened at the beginning of the Covid pandemic didn't help, so no visitors and I was sent home after seven days to convalesce at home. Thank goodness for BHF nurses is all I can say as they have always been there to help when local GPs/cardiologists have been hard, if not impossible, to see or speak to. I have yet to see a cardiologist face to face.

I've recently received a booklet from BHF called Dealing with abnormal Heart rhythms which is well set out, easy to read and very interesting. I'd still like to know more about the electrical impulses that engender heart beats though; it would be interesting to know what kind of research is going on into the subject.

Regards