Posted by Carl Plaskett on February 03, 2004 at 21:20:57:
In Reply to: Re: heart flutter posted by Glenn Camp on February 03, 2004 at 20:51:36:
Glenn: I was surprised by the statement that atrial flutter was considered "more dangerous". Sarah certainly has an advantage over most of us, having attended the Atrial Fibrillation Summit in August at the CC. She may have picked up something there of which I am not aware.
I had aflutter twice (at 2-3 and 19 months) post-maze,(and 100s of times pre-maze) and my EP tried Rythmol with each post-maze episode to try to convert me from a steady 120-130bpm. Both times the Rythmol increased my HR to around 140-150, so he cardioverted me after about 30-40 hours of aflutter. He was not concerned about me "throwing a blood clot" so I took no coumadin/warfarin. Had I been in atrial fibrillation, he might have been more concerned, although my atrial appendages (where blood pools during afib) had been removed during my maze, pretty well eliminating the chance of a stroke.
Atrial flutter IS a steady fast beat.
I would agree that a rapid ventricular beat is more dangerous than atrial fib.
- Re: heart flutter Barb Deck 12:12:21 2/04/2004 (0)