My resting pulse rate has been in the 60s for ages. Then this fall I moved from lone afib to persistant. Or at least afib that lasted longer than 24 hours for the first time. In fact I had a run of afib that lasted almost 4 weeks. I'm back in NSR now, but my resting pulse rate is sometimes in the 60s, but sometimes in the 70s now.

I was wondering if 4 weeks of afib somehow trained my heart to beat faster. Is that a possibility? Or am I just being paranoid?

Nancy

Nancy,

I had a 2 1/2 month episode about 9 years ago. I've been paroxysmal since with very infrequent episodes. I don't recall anything different about my heart rate after the episode, certainly nothing that persisted very long (a month or so).

There is the concept of "atrial stunning." This is that even after the atria go back to NSR, there is a time of dysfunction.

<[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

"Atrial stunning has been reported with all modes of conversion of atrial fibrillation and flutter to sinus rhythm including both transthoracic and low energy internal electrical, pharmacological, and spontaneous cardioversion, and conversion by overdrive pacing and by radiofrequency ablation. Atrial stunning is a function of the underlying arrhythmia becoming apparent at the restoration of sinus rhythm, not the function of the mode of conversion, and does not develop after the unsuccessful attempts of cardioversion or the delivery of electric current to the heart during rhythms other than atrial fibrillation or flutter. Tachycardia-induced atrial cardiomyopathy, cytosolic calcium accumulation, and atrial hibernation are the suggested mechanisms of atrial stunning. Atrial stunning is at maximum immediately after cardioversion and improves progressively with a complete resolution within a few minutes to 4-6 weeks depending on the duration of the preceding atrial fibrillation, atrial size, and structural heart disease."

George

George. ..." conversion by overdrive pacing "...
what is overdrive pacing, George? is that what is happening when i use a staircase to convert an afib episode back to sweet NSR?

PeggyM

Peggy,

I think it is something they do with a machine, but, in my mind what you do is a kin to it.

George

Hello again George, i googled overdrive pacing and found that it is done with an implanted pacemaker. But it does indeed sound very similar to what happens with the staircase method. As i have related at various times, one doctor in a local emergency room told me that if i climbed any stairs while in my usual very fast afib, i would have a heart attack or a stroke or both, and forbad me to do it. I then left the hospital against his advice, took a cab home, climbed my stairs to my bedroom, sat on the end of my bed to catch my breath, and just as usual, the afib gave one last big thump and converted back to sweet NSR. No heart attack nor stroke so far, and that happened several years ago now.

That was the occasion on which this same doctor told me i was now a permanent afibber since he had injected lots of diltiazem into my IV line, and nothing at all had changed about the afib, still pounding away madly. Diltiazem has apparently no effect at all on me, altho emergency rooms always use it every time. I think that whatever book they make these young doctors memorize must tell them to use diltiazem to convert afib, but does not tell them what to do if it does not work. He was not the first to be confounded to find the afib unaffected by diltiazem. I avoid emergency rooms while in afib for this and other similar reasons.

Biological uniqueness, i guess. I have atypical reactions to some common drugs that other people use without any trouble. Usually what happens is nothing at all, just like with the diltiazem. There is a common OTC cold medicine that similarly has no effect on me at all, i cannot remember the name of it right now but somebody posted a question about it some little time back. Others swear by it but it is worthless to me.

PeggyM

Hi Peggy,

Early in my afib career, I could exercise my way out of it. Until I had the episode where I couldn't...

That was the episode that lasted 2 1/2 months (over nine years ago) and was converted by PIP flecainide. Since being out of rhythm for 2 1/2 months was sooo much fun, I've not trusted myself to convert on my own since and have used flec instead.

However, I have noticed I can preempt an episode. A year ago I was having much more frequent afib, which I attributed to divorce stress. One of the triggers was the vagal aftermath of orgasm. Talk about throwing cold water on the fun! In any case, I could feel the rapid PAC's which presaged afib. I learned I could stop them by getting up and moving around, or even just sitting up - not being prone - and head off the afib. Not the most romantic thing to do, but fortunately, I have a very understanding partner.

I later realized my uptick in afib was due to significantly increased calcium from diet. When I restructured my diet, to a much more modest intake of Ca++, my afib went back to its usually stellar control with Mg++, K+ & taurine (and the orgasm trigger went away - that was a good thing!). The divorce stress was an indirect cause of the increased afib, not a direct one. I was stress eating a lot of cheese, hence the Ca++. On my low carb, high fat diet, there aren't negative consequences from the fat (saturated fat being benign in a low insulin environment), but there are for me, from the calcium.

Hope life is treating you well in Skowhegan.

Cheers,

George