Interesting Article from 1975 Deke Slayton Afib

[www.nytimes.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2019 02:50PM by katesshadow.

Yes, this is known history. Deke was selected for the Mercury program but never flew until ASTP (Apollo-Soyuz Test Program), the last flight of an Apollo capsule and the famous, one-and-only, Saturn-IB launch atop the "milkstool" platform at Kennedy Space Center's pad 39-B (39-A was already in work for Shuttle at the time).

Digitalis and quinidine? You see how far treatment has come for AF in 40+ years. If Deke could've had an ablation, maybe he could've gone to the moon. Who knows.

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wolfpack
Yes, this is known history. Deke was selected for the Mercury program but never flew until ASTP (Apollo-Soyuz Test Program), the last flight of an Apollo capsule and the famous, one-and-only, Saturn-IB launch atop the "milkstool" platform at Kennedy Space Center's pad 39-B (39-A was already in work for Shuttle at the time).

Digitalis and quinidine? You see how far treatment has come for AF in 40+ years. If Deke could've had an ablation, maybe he could've gone to the moon. Who knows.

I did not know he had Afib. I found it interesting that the article mentions one episode? Is quinidine still used?

No, neither drug is used by any doctor who has read a medical journal in the last 30 years.

Deke had lots of episodes. He abstained from alcohol and took the medication to keep the episodes at bay. Whether or not that completely eliminated it we’ll never know. Pilots and astronauts lie to the flight surgeons all the time. When they want to fly, everything’s hunky-dory. When they don’t want to fly (think South Pacific stopovers), then they have inner ear problems. It’s a contentious relationship to say the least!

A test pilot/astronaut with all their physical training would fit the exercise leading to afib profile.

Another interesting (and off-topic) story is Alan Shepard and Menier’s disease.

Flew Mercury and Apollo. Also made a tee shot on the moon.

Speaking of the moon, for those of us in the Western Hemisphere, there’s a killer eclipse coming up Sunday night. Don’t miss it.

Digoxin is most certainly still widely used - here in the UK anyway. So lots and lots of our doctors obviously never read a med journal. I was actually threatened by an Accident and Emergency doctor that I would be evicted from their hospital if I didn't agree to taking it. I left willingly. Subsequently a private consultant cardiologist at a famous London chest hospital told me that he felt my heart was normal and drugs were unnecessary. He also remarked about another drug - flecainide - which he said was a "dirty" drug which he never prescribed after two of his patients died after taking it.

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MSA
Digoxin is most certainly still widely used - here in the UK anyway. So lots and lots of our doctors obviously never read a med journal. I was actually threatened by an Accident and Emergency doctor that I would be evicted from their hospital if I didn't agree to taking it. I left willingly. Subsequently a private consultant cardiologist at a famous London chest hospital told me that he felt my heart was normal and drugs were unnecessary. He also remarked about another drug - flecainide - which he said was a "dirty" drug which he never prescribed after two of his patients died after taking it.

Two patients who shouldn’t have been given it then.

‘Twenty-five years in the making: flecainide is safe and effective for the management of atrial fibrillation.’

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

IMO Flec is the best AAD out there for more vagal than adrenergic AF BUT ONLY for those with no previous MI or existing structural heart disease.

Also:

[www.drugs.com]

For a short discussion between long term Flec users.

I took it for 11 years to excellent effect (1 or 2 1-to-2hr AF episodes per year (vagal)) with zero side effects (that I’m ware of).

I wouldn’t touch digoxin with a barge pole. (Although it does arguably have some usefulness in heart failure in the more elderly.)

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mwcf


I wouldn’t touch digoxin with a barge pole. (Although it does arguably have some usefulness in heart failure in the more elderly.)

Had a cat with cardiomyopathy who was successfully treated with digoxin for 14 years (age 5 to 19). He was very ill at the beginning and digoxin saved his life. One issue is the therapeutic dose is very close to the toxic dose.

That being said, like Mike, I would not touch it for myself with afib. One of my first cardio's, 14.5 years ago, told me digoxin was his favorite afib meds. I'd already joined here and knew better. We'd have hour long discussions about it, but I would not take it.

PIP (on-demand) flec was part of the remission protocol I proposed to the EP in Oct 2004. I've used it in this manner since, though I've only needed to take it infrequently. The first thing the EP did was make sure my heart was sound.

George

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MSA
I was actually threatened by an Accident and Emergency doctor that I would be evicted from their hospital if I didn't agree to taking it. I left willingly.

Good choice.