Atrial Tachycardia

[jakee01]

Hi everyone I am new here so please excuse me if I have done this wrong.

My wife recently got diagnosed with atrial tachycardia which is more common in the young and the old. Prior to diagnoses we had ambulances out and she was plugged up to the monitors and every time the paramedics said atrial fibrillation. But months later diagnosed with atrial tachycardia, prescribed flecainide which helps about 90 percent of the time. Also she is waiting to speak to her consultant about an ablation.

I can't find anything relating to atrial tachycardia on this forum so it must be extremely rare.

The whole thing leading up to diagnosis, the arrhythmia started last year and came out of no where about September time. She had it once before after doing night shifts but it went away when she was pregnant with our son. It was never as bad as what it was last year. We are baffled on why and where it came from. It's caused her to be more stressful and the medication does not help with its side effects. Could she be mis diagnosed, are they right? I don't have much faith in medical professionals these days because of personal reasons.

[Cubiczee1252]

Hi and welcome to this forum ( although I know you’d probably rather not have had to find it☹️).

I was diagnosed with atrial tachycardia about 4 years ago. I’d always dealt with PACs throughout the years (I’m 67 years old), but this felt like it came out of nowhere for me too. I’m a nurse and the fear and cardiac symptoms pretty much put me out of commission. The rhythm was captured and I was given the diagnosis after wearing a 30 day monitor. I was also put on Flaicanide. I was so scared to take it after reading all of the side effects but it really has given me my life back. Thankfully I have no side effects. I see an Electrophysiologist and he said my arrhythmia could not be ablated because it had so many different origins in the atria. I pray that my medications continue to work. Currently I was diagnosed by a Cleveland Clinic electrophysiologist as having paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation. I just recently moved to Ohio and my physician in Florida never mentioned AFib only Atrial Tach. I could not find much info either on straight up Atrial Tachycardia, and the only thing my cardiologists told me is “don’t worry, it won’t kill you”. That wasn’t any consolation as I felt like heck. I sure felt like I was going to die. I understand completely how your wife feels

Every time I get an odd run of beats I’m so afraid it’s come back! I don’t know if this helps at all. Only to say I know your wife’s fear!!

[jakee01 in reply to Cubiczee1252]

Thank you Cubiczee

[Spanaway]

You can always get a second opinion. I'm sure you will get more info on her issues in this group. We have different issues but there are some many with the basic same issues. Prayers for your wife and you🙏

[Bcost318]

Hi jakee01, I have recently been diagnosed with Atrial Tachycardia after a good few years of fighting for appointments and answers and being diagnosed with everything else first, they say they are confident it's Atrial Tachycardia. I am 24 and I have the ablation nearly a year ago which was unsuccessful due to them not being able to find the "short circuit". My consultant is confident he knows where about's in the heart it's coming from but unsure on how to actually fix this. The hospital i had my ablation at have refused to try and do the ablation again and suggested i take tablets for the rest of my days but i fought too long to just give up now and i am also on my 5th set of tablets due to them not working and i refused to take Flecainide due to the side effects and the information on these was unsettling for me so i am on the newest drug they have, I am currently being referred to a consultant in Newcastle which i have my fingers crossed will know more about this and can help me!

Mine can often last seconds or hours but i have them nearly every day and some days my heart rate is over 250 bmp. It is very scary but there is a little trick i learnt myself to stop them (not forever but for a short while) i take a big deep breath and hold it and then i can feel my hear restart itself.

I also couldn't find a lot on Atrical Tachycardia on here either so hopefully this little bit of information helps.

[Timsywhimsy]

Sorry for what your wife is going through—sounds like you have little kids???? Makes it all the harder. I have AVNRT (svt) and had an ablation almost four months ago. After they fixed it and we’re testing it I had a short run of AT. About a week ago I had about a four minute run. Despite capturing on Kardia my cardiologist can’t be sure if it was svt or AT. If it’s svt recurrence I’ll get second ablation I guess. Didn’t realize it was so difficult to ablate AT. Long story short, you can have more than one arrhythmia, unfortunately. It is so stressful, I know! Keep us posted.

[Shcldavies]

Yes I have it, normally AT can be ablated, but if you have Multifocal Atrial Tachycardia MAT, it is not generally ablated as the technology cannot always be accurate enough to pin point all the parts of the heart that cause it. Normally then treated with drugs. NOTE the heart is designed with safeguards, one being there are foci in the heart (channels that move mainly calcium irons to contract your heart and potassium irons to relax your heart) that "fire" when they sense something amiss to ensure the heart keeps beating, with MAT they fire inappropriately.

In my case I went for an ablation for Aflutter, only for the EP to find I did not have Aflutter, it was caused by the drugs (combination of Bisoprolol and Flecainide) he gave me 3 months earlier and he confirmed that I had MAT, he did ablate much of the MAT but not all. Thankfully I am still free from symptoms nearly a year on and much less medication than the EP thought (only 1.25 Bisoprolol). I can still get occasional ectopics and very occasionally short runs of tachycardia (not longer than 5 seconds), these symptoms are very mild and I may have always experienced them, just that I am more self aware now.

Its worth knowing that the symptoms I now experience tend to come on after certain foods, with me ALL sugar especially artificial sweeteners make me more sensitive to AT/MAT (I can take up to a certain amount without symptoms). I would advise drinking 1.5ltrs of water a day starting as soon as awake in the morning, leave at least 12 hours (not more than 16) between last meal at night and first in the morning, take magnesium supplements (not oxide), eat a banana a day and 2 avacado's a week, make sure iron and vitamin D levels are good, stop all sugar, caffeine and alcohol in turn to see which make the symptoms worst. If your wife takes PPIs try and cut down or stop. NOTE the culprits may not present symptoms for days so this is not a quick fix, it will take many months to get to the bottom of it. Also if you are hydrated, stress free and have the right electrolyte balance (re my advice above) the symptoms may not present at all.

Funny enough mine started in September 1997 and over the years gradually became worst. I wish I knew then what I know now and most likely would have stopped it deteriorating by following the tips above. The reason I believe is that the heart/nervous system is irritated by something and this something can be really hard to find, hence the catch all advise above. Its also worth noting that the electrolytes I am talking about (sodium calcium potassium magnesium etc) have to be in the cells, blood tests can indicate all is well yet you cellular level may be severely depleted.