Afib/svt

I was on Lexapro for eight years six years into it I was on the treadmill and I had a hard thump and another thump and my heart went racing it was like my heart was all over the place after about 10 minutes it's slowed down then two years later almost to the date I stopped the Lexapro in December and then ended up going back on it in February 18 days into it at 3 o'clock in the morning I woke up I had to hard thump and then another thump in my heart raced and It was the scariest moment of my life and lasted maybe about 10 or 15 minutes and then all of a sudden it just stopped and my heart went back to normal nobody can tell me if it was a afib or SVT since then I haven't had another episode just sinus tachycardia. What do you think?

The hallmark of afib is irregular beats. In other words, the beat duration is highly variable. If you go to this PDF (CR 52) <[www.afibbers.org] page 11 and forward, you will graphs of heart rate vs. time. This will show the variability. Also a whole lot of examples here: <[www.afibbers.org] I'm used a Polar heart rate monitor and more recently a Polar Bluetooth strap with an app to do this kind of monitoring for 11 years. If anyone is interested, I can explain in more detail.

On an ECG, the variability is also noted as is the absence of a "p" wave in afib. <[www.google.com] If you have a recent smartphone you can use an AliveCor monitor ($75) to get a single lead ECG <[www.alivecor.com] I use one with my iPhone 5. To get a good reading, I do not have the AliveCor attached to the phone and I always wet (lick) my fingers before touching the electrodes and make sure I'm sitting perfectly still. The device can create a PDF of a 30 second test you can print or send to a doc. They also have a service, for a fee, that will read and interpret for you.

You can feel the variability in your radial pulse with your fingers on a pulse point (or at least I can).

George



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2016 11:16AM by GeorgeN.

Hi Barb,

Which article are you referring to that you had read? It's not possible to define for sure what arrhythmia ( if any true arrhythmia at all) that you may have had after the fact without an EKG strip or heart monitoring record. Your description could easily be a cluster or short runs of PVCs (premacure ventricular contractions) possibly mixed with some PACs (premature atrial contractions) which are both classified as ectopic beats and are not defined as classic arrhythmias in most cases. More toxic manifestations of PVCs that are very frequent to persistent in nature can signal some trouble and can, in more rare cases, lead to a PVC-induced cardiomyopathy, but in the vast majority of cases ... with especially PACs, and even PVCs that come and go, even with frequent runs for weeks at a time are far more typically considered largely benign.

I seriously doubt if what you describe was SVT (Supra-Ventricular Tachycardia) which has a very steady and even, but typically very fast staccato-like machine gun rhythm, often zooming up to above 170bpm to 220bpm or so. It is possible you had some short runs of AFIB, but it's very hard, actually impossible, to tell for sure based on only a past tense anecdotal description such as yours below. Mixed runs of PVCS and PACs can also be almost impossible to distinguish from real AFIB too by your subjective feeling alone, though the short-term nature of your events laid out below tend to favor the likelihood that it may have been mostly or entirely ectopic in nature … i.e.. PVCs and/or PACS and likely nothing to worry about.

When you say you have not had any other events since those last few brief but scary and hard isolated ‘thumps’, other than 'sinus tachycardia' are you meaning NSR as in normal sinus rhythm or are you describing actual sinus tachycardia which is sinus rhythm above 100bpm??

While Lexapro, and a large host of drugs and other biochemical changes from dietary or endogenous origins can, for sure, trigger AFIB, from your history below it would be quite a stretch to label Lexapro as the obvious culprit that caused these short term thumps.

So many other influences may well have been behind whatever you experienced. You would need to have a more solid track record of clear association between the Lexapro and your widely spaced and very infrequent events over the many years you were taking Lexapro before it would be fair or logical to put the blame on that drug. It may have been a contributing factor and it may very well have not been at all.

Best wishes,
Shannon

I have some pvcs pacs here and there or when I get stressed. I knew this was not the same it was like my heart was beating all over the place at a very high rate. That whole week I had episodes of just racing heart but not like this. It happened twice first time wasn't so bad I kida brushed it off. Then when it happened two years later at 3am in the morning it was so scary. I have a panic disorder but when my heart races when I get anxious about something it's steady and it slows down. The episodes I had were not steady and it never slowed down just stopped and like that I was back in sinus rhythm. I've been off all meds just take a half of Xanax when needed. I wore a 32 day event monitor it showed sinus tachycardia junctional rhythm accelerated junctional rhythm and that's it . Occasional or rare PVCs as well no afib nothing my cardiologist said it might have been it but never caught it. Cardiologist took me off Lexapro because he says it does cause afib If I would've known that I would've never taken it to begin with when I finally looked into all the side effects I couldn't believe half of those things I was going through and didn't even know until I was off the medicine . Don't get me wrong anti-inside the medicine is wonderful to help you but at the same time sometimes it causes more harm than good.

Pretty kittay - Based on your recounting of various experiences, consider these points that caught my eye: heart racing when you become anxious or the 3 am occurrences of racing heart. Often, that can be the result of low blood glucose (blood sugar) and that can be driven by what you ate or drank for your evening meal or perhaps a snack later in the evening. During the day, that applies when you become anxious or panicky and heart is racing. Look back at what you ate or drank several hours prior. If sugary items or high carb items are involved, then be suspect of a hypoglycemic reaction or response to the low blood sugar. The body goes into alert or panic because the brain must have glucose as a fuel and secretes adrenaline as an alert. That's what can make you feel panicky, shaky and have a racing heart.

I know several people with anxiety, panic attacks and pounding, racing hearts that were eventually diagnosed as diabetic. Had the doctors recognized the early hypoglycemic symptoms, there's a good chance that could have been managed and the diabetes circumvented. These people were high-stress individuals... often ate and drank sugary foods for quick fixes to 'settle' down... and alcohol to 'de-stress' in the evening. The middle of the night racing heart issues did crop up but were never actually or formally diagnosed as arrhythmia. One culprit can be "diet" sodas and the chemicals that are used as sweeteners.

In my case, I had adrenal burnout, high stress load and a high stress job. If I didn't eat enough protein at the previous meal or if I felt tired but still had many patients to see, I'd grab a sweet pick-me-up which worked at the time, but later rebounded with a hypoglycemic event that led at first to racing heart and palps and then, eventually, to Afib during the wee hours at night. I was fortunate to find my first 'holistic' type MD who was also hypoglycemic and understood what caused that whole syndrome. Unfortunately, it wasn't the total answer and emphasis at the time was not on determining the need for optimal electrolytes or minerals required for cardiac function. I was taking calcium supplements for healthy bones, but not taking magnesium or potassium for my heart. Much later, I learned about the critical importance of magneisum for heart health... esp. when Afib is involved... thanks to this forum. The calcium was excitatory and definitely a culprit.

Keep in mind that drugs (Lexapro in your case) deplete magnesium. If you are marginally low, then when you did use the Lexapro, it could have been just enough to interfere with proper heart electrical conduction.

If you haven't read some of the topics in the Afib Resources section, I'd suggest you check out the titles and begin reading about the importance of giving your heart nutritional support by specific supplements. Here's the link... check out The Strategy and the reports on potassium, taurine and all...[www.afibbers.org]

Let me know if I can help direct you to other info.

Best to you,
Jackie