That pattern suggests that you were experiencing paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) which is a benign arrhythmia---paroxysmal atrial tachycardia, flutter, or fibrillation. It is usually easily terminated by the valsalva maneuver which is simply trying to force an exhalation against a closed airway. PSVT poses no real risk and…
That pattern suggests that you were experiencing paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) which is a benign arrhythmia---paroxysmal atrial tachycardia, flutter, or fibrillation. It is usually easily terminated by the valsalva maneuver which is simply trying to force an exhalation against a closed airway. PSVT poses no real risk and doesn't require any treatment unless it is very frequent and bothersome.
The episode I had started when I bent over to pick up a pen off the floor on a Sunday afternoon. I had been grading papers. I stood up and my heart was doing 130 bpm. I let it go 3 hours then went to urgent care. The guy there said my heart was starting to "show signs of stress"so he sent me to ER across the street. It took the ER doc an hour to get it into normal rhythm, and I guess it was the IV with some beta blocker that did it. He said he initially thought it was SVT but then thought it was "just flutter". The urgent care guy had tried having me do the vagus nerve stuff, bearing down, etc but nothing worked.
After that, it was a few weeks of trying the most horrible meds ever invented (beta and calcium channel blockers) to prevent any such thing occurring again. They were far "worse than the disease" so no go. Then a few months after that I realized the blood thinner was crushing me so that went off the loading dock. So I had the ablation.
I still don't know what that event was. I don't know if what I still experience is the same kind of thing and I hope it's what you suggest. That was one of the most depressing experiences I've ever had.
Hard to be sure without seeing the EKG but I would bet that you experienced an episode of paroxysmal atrial flutter. Isolated attacks of rapid heart beat are either atrial tachycardia, atrial flutter, or atrial fibrillation. The first two produce a regular heart rate and fibrillation an irregular heart rate. Any doctor would be able to differentiate fibrillation from the other two and certainly would have told you so. Paroxysmal just means that the episodes come on for no identifiable reason and end the same way. They may last only a few minutes or, in the case of atrial flutter, persist for a longer period. Vagal stimulation through Valsalva maneuver or carotid artery massage may terminate an attack of atrial tachycardia but usually won't work for flutter or fibrillation. People with paroxysmal atrial tachycardia often have a long history of periodic episodes often going back to childhood. No treatment with drugs or anything else is necessary unless the attacks are so frequent that they disrupt your life in some way. Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation may presage a future persistent atrial fibrillation but that is the only significant negative feature and that can be managed very easily with an old medication (digitalis) that has very few side effects. Paroxysmal SVT NEVER warrants anticoagulation. Even persistent atrial fibrillation has only a very slight risk of subsequent stroke and the need for anticoagulants to prevent this is quite debatable. Dr. Mandrola has presented a number of studies on this website that bear that out.
When they finally got my heart slowed down the beats were irregular for a minute or so. Then it settled into a regular rhythm and I guess that fits the paroxysmal atrial flutter. Thanks for your comment. The whole thing was confusing.
Premature beats are very common and will often be mistaken for an irregular rhythm. It used to be common practice to give medication to suppress premature beats. But once 24-hour portable heart monitors came into common use, it became apparent that these were detected frequently in most people and that practice was , thankfully, abandoned. When your heart rhythm reverts to normal after a sustained tachycardia, there will often be some irregularity in the initial moments. Your episode had to be paroxysmal atrial tachycardia or flutter---they are much the same; some focus in the atrial conduction system started firing off at about 260 per minute and half were able to be conducted down to the ventricular conduction system. The junction between the atrial and ventricular conduction systems is the AV node and it can't repolarize quickly enough to transmit at rates much over 200 per minute. This can be alarming but isn't dangerous. I spent a lot of time in my practice explaining to people that abnormalities in the heart's electrical system were not necessarily a sign of heart disease.
That pattern suggests that you were experiencing paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) which is a benign arrhythmia---paroxysmal atrial tachycardia, flutter, or fibrillation. It is usually easily terminated by the valsalva maneuver which is simply trying to force an exhalation against a closed airway. PSVT poses no real risk and doesn't require any treatment unless it is very frequent and bothersome.
The episode I had started when I bent over to pick up a pen off the floor on a Sunday afternoon. I had been grading papers. I stood up and my heart was doing 130 bpm. I let it go 3 hours then went to urgent care. The guy there said my heart was starting to "show signs of stress"so he sent me to ER across the street. It took the ER doc an hour to get it into normal rhythm, and I guess it was the IV with some beta blocker that did it. He said he initially thought it was SVT but then thought it was "just flutter". The urgent care guy had tried having me do the vagus nerve stuff, bearing down, etc but nothing worked.
After that, it was a few weeks of trying the most horrible meds ever invented (beta and calcium channel blockers) to prevent any such thing occurring again. They were far "worse than the disease" so no go. Then a few months after that I realized the blood thinner was crushing me so that went off the loading dock. So I had the ablation.
I still don't know what that event was. I don't know if what I still experience is the same kind of thing and I hope it's what you suggest. That was one of the most depressing experiences I've ever had.
Hard to be sure without seeing the EKG but I would bet that you experienced an episode of paroxysmal atrial flutter. Isolated attacks of rapid heart beat are either atrial tachycardia, atrial flutter, or atrial fibrillation. The first two produce a regular heart rate and fibrillation an irregular heart rate. Any doctor would be able to differentiate fibrillation from the other two and certainly would have told you so. Paroxysmal just means that the episodes come on for no identifiable reason and end the same way. They may last only a few minutes or, in the case of atrial flutter, persist for a longer period. Vagal stimulation through Valsalva maneuver or carotid artery massage may terminate an attack of atrial tachycardia but usually won't work for flutter or fibrillation. People with paroxysmal atrial tachycardia often have a long history of periodic episodes often going back to childhood. No treatment with drugs or anything else is necessary unless the attacks are so frequent that they disrupt your life in some way. Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation may presage a future persistent atrial fibrillation but that is the only significant negative feature and that can be managed very easily with an old medication (digitalis) that has very few side effects. Paroxysmal SVT NEVER warrants anticoagulation. Even persistent atrial fibrillation has only a very slight risk of subsequent stroke and the need for anticoagulants to prevent this is quite debatable. Dr. Mandrola has presented a number of studies on this website that bear that out.
When they finally got my heart slowed down the beats were irregular for a minute or so. Then it settled into a regular rhythm and I guess that fits the paroxysmal atrial flutter. Thanks for your comment. The whole thing was confusing.
Premature beats are very common and will often be mistaken for an irregular rhythm. It used to be common practice to give medication to suppress premature beats. But once 24-hour portable heart monitors came into common use, it became apparent that these were detected frequently in most people and that practice was , thankfully, abandoned. When your heart rhythm reverts to normal after a sustained tachycardia, there will often be some irregularity in the initial moments. Your episode had to be paroxysmal atrial tachycardia or flutter---they are much the same; some focus in the atrial conduction system started firing off at about 260 per minute and half were able to be conducted down to the ventricular conduction system. The junction between the atrial and ventricular conduction systems is the AV node and it can't repolarize quickly enough to transmit at rates much over 200 per minute. This can be alarming but isn't dangerous. I spent a lot of time in my practice explaining to people that abnormalities in the heart's electrical system were not necessarily a sign of heart disease.
You just educated me better than any cardiologist I've ever talked with about what happened. THANK you!
You're welcome. I'll always jump at the chance to feel less useless in my retirement.
I think I know what you mean. Sometimes I'm asked if I will tutor a physics student.