does an event monitor detect flutter

I am going to have an event monitor fitted next week, it has 2 leads. Can it check for atrial flutter.
I get the flutter only when I am asleep, well I notice it when I first wake up. then it stops, unless I drift off, then it starts again.
I experience this every morning. is this usual.

Colin

Hello again Colindo. Truly this sounds like sleep apnea episodes,where your breathing pauses for too long while you are asleep. Naturally when your oxygen level drops from not breathing, your heart starts racing to try to distribute what there is of it. A sleep study would reveal whether this is what is happening with you. A whole lot of afibbers have sleep apnea along with their afib, i do in fact. Once in a great while somebody posts here to say that they got their sleep apnea treated, and their afib went away too. That happened with a former regular poster here quite a few years ago, a woman named Debbie.How i do hope that happens with you.

PeggyM

Hi PeggyM,

I don't snore, isn't that the main symptom of sleep apnea.
I have only recently been experiencing atrial flitter, after taking flecanide.
I can feel the fast vibrations with my hand on my chest. Approx 250ppm and my pulse is normal, 60ppm.

Colin

I get that too (like internal vibration) when I am waking up but I don't think its flutter - it just lasts secs whilst I transition to wakefulness - I put it down to just I am now overly sensitive to anything my body (including waking up) does these days !

I should be getting an event recorder too in the next weeks so I'll try to capture it just in case...

This device could help: [www.fitbit.com] it will track the quality of your sleep. If you have sleep apneia it should be apparent from the logs

"I have only recently been experiencing atrial flitter, after taking flecanide."

What does the doc have to say about that? Coincidence?

Flec can sometimes "organize" minor afib into flutter according to a top EP I talked to.

Colindo, arrange a sleep study anyway, not everybody snores who has this. The night time tachycardia is even more diagnostic. Sleep studies are painless, not harmfull in any way.

PeggyM

Thanks PeggyM, I will have it checked out.

I do notice when I am falling asleep that the A-flutter starts, I can be half asleep when it starts and when I awake it stops. I think I must be having A-flutter all the time when I am asleep. Most nights I wake up 2 or 3 times with major bounding (about 250 bpm) in my chest, then it stops and I go back to sleep again. Sleep is the trigger.
Does this sound like sleep apnea.
I have an event monitor at present and have recordered the events when I awake during the night. I will get the results next week I hope.
Strange!!

Colin


PeggyM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Colindo, arrange a sleep study anyway, not
> everybody snores who has this. The night time
> tachycardia is even more diagnostic. Sleep studies
> are painless, not harmfull in any way.
>
> PeggyM



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2013 01:49PM by colindo.

Not everyone who snores has sleep apnea.

Conversely, not everyone who has sleep apnea snores.

Not everyone who has apnea has sleep apnea.

Just sayin'

lisa
__________________________

So much of medicine is looking solely down the wrong end of the gun barrel, and that is really a pity for all of us---Shannon

And to add to your list, Lisa, not everyone who has sleep apnea has obstructive sleep apnea.

And some people have hypopneas.

"I get that too (like internal vibration) when I am waking up but I don't think its flutter - it just lasts secs whilst I transition to wakefulness - I put it down to just I am now overly sensitive to anything my body (including waking up) does these days !

I should be getting an event recorder too in the next weeks so I'll try to capture it just in case... "

I have a stethoscope under my pillow, and the vibrations don't seem to be the heart. If feels like the vagal (or some other) is causing the pulsing. I'm getting a personal ekg monitor to try to catch te devil.
Your better to have your own monitor, because you get so little feedback from your doctor after wearing thiers, its pathetic !

Two times i had a 24 hour hospital monitor, and the Afib stood me up! Doctors begin to think your faking.
Once you catch it on your own, you can show the doctor the printout.