That study seems to assume that the pulmonary veins are the only source of afib. They are not. The ones who failed the redo probably have afib sources outside the pulmonary veins so no amount of repeating PVIs will ever help them.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Metoprolol only needs to be weaned slowly if you've been on it a very long time. Whether it's succinate or tartrate doesn't really matter. I don't understand why they didn't stop the metoprolol outright when they started the amio since amio will take over the function the metoprolol was providing. Combining them is almost surely the reason for the bradycardia. But a rby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
I've heard from a few people who experienced similar tachycardia after an ablation, but not necessarily one involving the LAA. I've never heard that LAA isolation makes this more common. It's true that for one week a rate of 120-140 isn't going to do you any harm. Has someone done a 12-lead ECG while you're in this tachycardia? How do you know it isn't flutter?by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
I agree with gloaming. That chart is very simplistic and doesn't make much sense. Every number on it is lower than what I and many people my age reach on a routine basis during even modest exercise. If 75 is a heart rate you're achieving during exercise and you're not on rate limiting drugs, then something is wrong. It can't just be that you're out of shape because if youby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Inpatients are sick people. That's why they're inpatients. So it's no surprise that they have a higher mortality rate. The impressive finding from that study is the significantly lower mortality rate at high-volume centers. We've been preaching here for years that if you seek an ablation, you need an EP who has done thousands of ablations at a center that does thousands ofby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
The closest is the Days Inn just on the other side of I-35. It's an easy 1-block walk to St. David's. It's also very cheap. However, there's a reason it's cheap and you probably don't want to stay there. The mattresses needed replacing 10 years ago, the carpet is worn, and it's just kind of run down in general. I usually stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites oby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
That's some impressive 100% correlation. Tiny sample size and horribly non-random sample, of course, but I'd love to see a good study done on that using thousands of patients. It could be done entirely retrospectively based on anonymous patient records, so it would be cheap to do.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Yes, that's what it means. There isn't really a specific name for it. The best description would be you're in longstanding persistent AF with a normal ventricular response.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Seems like a strange place to ask. There's no reason why people in an afib forum are likely to know the answer to this. Surely there are forums out there more tailored to cool sculpting questions.by Carey - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
Lifelong dog owner here and I don't know what that is. What I do know is that dogs that seem down are usually ill.by Carey - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
I once did a 50-mile bike ride in hilly terrain 3 days after an ablation. I asked the EP beforehand and he said go ahead. I pointed out that I wasn't talking about an easy 5 miles on some nice flat bike path, but 10 times that distance on hills with 10-20% grades. He still said go ahead. I've asked other EPs about this and they all agree. Basically, it all comes down to how you feelby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteAmara I'm not yet on Medicare and have private insurance. Sorry, I misstated it in my last post. I just corrected it. Does anyone have any experience with changing to a different private insurance company they can recommend? Before you do anything check to see if Natale accepts your current insurance. If it's a big national company and not an HMO he probably does. Is your currby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
There's kind of an apples and oranges problem here. Those numbers are all from clinical trials where the numbers are gathered and calculated very differently from real life. The clots responsible for 90% of all afib-related strokes originate in the left atrial appendage (LAA). With a Watchman, the LAA is completely isolated from the circulation and therefore can't release clots at alby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
124 ms is just barely above the normal range upper bound of 120, so I don't think "dangerous" is a word I would use. But you're seeing a cardiologist, right? Have they talked about a possible pacemaker?by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Are you on traditional Medicare, a Medicare Advantage plan, or private insurance? It might be possible for you to switch to a plan that's in network for him. Others here have done that.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
QuoteJakeS Not that it is everything but the first EP has 50 patient reviews online and everyone is 5/5. Not one rating lower. My PCP has had a few of his patients get treated by him and told me that they all had successful ablations. The 2nd EP only has 9 reviews and his rating is much lower w complaint about him as well as the office staff. This is just my personal opinion, but I put almostby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
After hearing your full history I think you should without question find a way to visit Dr. Natale. You have met and exceeded the criteria of being a complex patient beyond the capabilities of most EPs. There are probably only a handful of EPs in the country who can help you, and you can bet that all of them trained with Natale. If you've never read it before, please read about how and wby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
I second George's endorsement of Pinski.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Thank you, Amara, and everyone else who has helped us pay the bills and keep the web site running for the last 24 years. We couldn't continue to operate without you.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotekarin "The observed rhythms are sinus bradycardia to sinus tachycardia with sustained episodes of atrial flutter. *The Maximum Heart Rate recorded was 172 bpm, Day 3 / 11:09:51 am, the Minimum Heart Rate recorded was 43 bpm, Day 6 / 06:11:09 am and the Average Heart Rate was 72 bpm. *There were 463 PVCs with a burden of 0.04 %. *There were 32508 PSVCs with a burden of 3.15 %. There werby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Quotebettylou4488 I had one there- it was not open in that it was all the way around... Truly open MRIs don't exist. The so-called "open" MRIs are just bigger and wider.by Carey - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
I wouldn't add any supplements until you've had your 6-week TEE and been declared problem free. The trouble with supplements is the people who produce them and sell them won't pay to study them, so what they interact with and how is often little more than a guess.by Carey - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
I doubt she'll be so sedated that she can't follow instructions. And it looks like the UofM MRI is an open MRI. Their scanner has a 70 cm opening, and that's what an open MRI is. Standard MRs are 50-60 cm. None are truly open. Is the issue claustrophobia?by Carey - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
I don't have time to break it down for you tonight, but I will tomorrow. The problem with reading raw reports like this is you see a bunch of scary sounding stuff that isn't actually all that scary, or even abnormal. Suffice it to say for now that you don't have a bunch of new arrhythmias.by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Don't overcomplicate it. You have a Watchman now. It's a simple, inert device that seals off your LAA. It doesn't care about any of the supplements you take. That's not to say your supplements might not be harmful in other ways, but I don't think any of them will have any interaction with your Watchman.by Carey - GENERAL HEALTH FORUM
The short answer is no. Diagnosing things from ECGs ranges from the trivially obvious to the sublimely complex. This question definitely leans toward the complex side. Patients with WPW are usually diagnosed based on ECG findings during arrhythmia events, which George's link explains. But some patients do exhibit WPW patterns during NSR. We're talking about very few people, like 2-4by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
It's probably that the valve disease market isn't big enough to justify the cost of the clinical trials they'd have to do to get regulatory approval. And they know that doctors will gradually begin prescribing them off-label anyway, like Daisy mentioned above. There are a whole lot of drugs being used off-label for afib. Even flecainide isn't approved to treat afib, or anyby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Atrial flutter (AFL) is a very regular rhythm. If the heartbeat you're feeling is an irregular rhythm, that's most likely afib, not AFL. AFL doesn't refer to the fluttering sensation many people with afib feel. It's an arrhythmia separate and distinct from afib, although it's similar in many ways. But the distinguishing characteristic between the two is that flutter iby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
When did you have an ablation?by Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM
Hi Luvarose, welcome to the forum. Sorry this is happening but we really need to know more about you before we can offer useful comments. We have no idea how old you are, what medical conditions you have, what medications you're taking, or even what gender you are. So please give us a summary of you and your health issues. One easy thing I can suggest is drink more water now. Dehydrationby Carey - AFIBBERS FORUM