Hi all. I need a little help trying to figure out what happened. Note that I don't have any electronic pulse monitoring.

Paroxysmal afib for 7 years, not had an episode in 2 years 2 months so I am out of 'practice'. Just got over NoroVirus with some throwing up and diarrhea. I tried to keep my electrolytes up but started having more skipped beets than my usual. After dinner my skipped beats progressed to about 10 good beats and one wonky one. I finally fell asleep.

At about 1:00 am I woke up in what I thought was AFIB, I am very symptomatic. However when I took my pulse It did not feel like the usual randomness that I am used to. I could feel a couple of periodic beats followed by a wonky beat. Sometimes three or four periodic beats then a couple of wonky beats. It also did not act like my 'normal' afib. It would stop for 2-3 minutes then start up again. My 'normal' afib would stop and not start up again. The whole episode lasted 2 hours then stopped for the night. I took a 4 year old metroprolol which seemed to help with the symptoms.

I think I am going to buy a Kardia. Anyway, anybody have any ideas.

Thanks,
Mike

Since Norovirus can cause myocarditis, this is the kind of post that makes me think .... get seen by your primary care physician (or Urgent Care) to be looked at.

[www.bhf.org.uk]

Hope you're well, and soon.

NBeener,
Thanks for your concern. I don't think I have myocarditis but I will keep it in mind. Once I went back to NSR, no other symptoms. Actually I feel great today, however all my past AFIB's occur at night.

My guess, from your description, is a fair quantity of premature beats. Reading the paper susan linked here, I'm guessing the greatest cause of false positives are high levels of premature beats.

I can usually differentiate these when I look at a beat to beat heart rate vs. time graph ("tachogram") as you can see an NSR baseline between the premature beats that doesn't exist in afib.

George,
Thanks for the info. I am also leaning to the large amounts of PVC's. I guess I just do the usual drill, Magnesium, don't overdue the exercise, no alcohol, and metroprolol to alleviate the symptoms.

I was able to schedule an appointment with my cardiologist on line, but won't get in for another month. I haven't seen him in 4 years but I do need a refill of the beta blocker.