Omron PM monitor detecting irregular heartbeat and Afib

[Bluebelladonna]

I've recently discovered the I have grade 1 hypertension and I am waiting a few months to see if lifestyle changes helps lower it. I bought myself an Omron M7 Intelli IT bp monitor and it regularly detects that I have an irregular heart beat. I decided to try the Afib mode and it detected that I may have it. I had an ECG today and nothing showed up. What does this mean? Should I say to my Dr at my appointment next week? The ECG was taken by a healthcare assistant at the Dr's. Previous blood tests came back satisfactory too.

[Threecats]

Hi Bluebelladonna

I have AFib and when it first started it was paroxysmal, in that episodes would come and go, seemingly at random. AFib is notoriously difficult to capture on an ecg because, of course, that only captures a brief minute of the heart’s activity and inevitably the heart behaves impeccably whilst the electrodes are on! It took three trips to A&E before mine was eventually caught on a paramedic’s ecg machine.

I would definitely mention it at your doctors appointment next week so they can refer you to cardiology for a Holter monitor and an echocardiogram. The Holter monitors your heart activity for a longer period of time and may capture any AFib, although not always. Alternatively, if you can, buy yourself a Kardia it would be well worth doing. This little device does an ecg on the spot and produces the result on your phone and is invaluable in capturing those elusive AFib episodes. The readouts it produces are accepted by NHS cardiologists, too.

One other thing worth mentioning is that if you are in AFib when taking your blood pressure, then the reading may well not be accurate, as bp machines have a hard time detecting true blood pressure when the heart is beating irregularly.

All the best to you, TC