Atrial Flutter

Question: Is there typically a release of cardiac enzyme after atrial flutter? Blood tests show no release of cardiac enzyme. Wondering if this rules out atrial flutter as cause of middle-chest pain, trouble breathing.

Answer: Atrial flutter needs an ECG for diagnosis. It is unlikely to cause elevation of cardiac enzymes. Symptom of atrial flutter is likely to be palpitation rather than chest pain, unless there is associated structural heart disease. Pure atrial flutter is an electrical disorder of the heart.

Question: atrial flutter? anyone deal with this? please give some general info (symptoms, treatments, stories,...)

Answer: atrial flutter is exactly what it says. Your atria is fluttering, it is not making full contractions. Your heart beat usually stays regular with this rhythm but can become extremely fast. Also, the number of times your atria contracts compared to your ventricle contractions will very. In your normal sinus rhythm (the normal rhythm of a health heart) your atria contracts once for every time your ventricle contracts, its called 1 to 1 conduction. In atrial flutter you can have up to 4 or 5 atrial contractions to every ventricle contraction. In addition to this, you can also go into whats called SVT. It stands for supra ventricular tachacardia, this means that your beat is starting above the ventricles and your ventricular rate is grater than 150 times a miunte. If this happens it can be very stressful on your heart, you will feels symptoms such as chest pain, short of breath, sweaty, racing heart, palpatations, light headed, dizzy, nausea. Treatment for Atrial flutter is a medication called cardizem, it slows down your attrial contractions and puts your heart back into a normal sinus rhythm. You can also try whats called a vegal manuver. What you are doing here is stimulating the vegus nerve in your body, dont do this if you are lightheaded or dizzy though or if you think your blood pressure is at all low. What you do to stimulate your vegus nerve is you bear down. A good way to do this is to hold your breath and take your hand and push in on your stomach as hard as you can while you tighten your stomach so your hand cant push in. Like I said though, if you have a low b.p. you can cause your self to pass out by doing this. I would make sure I could take me b.p. prior to doing this and make sure it is atleast 100 systolic. The last and most extreme treatment is electrical cardioversion. They have to shock your heart back into a normal rhythm.

Question: if somebody has a atrial fibrulation or atrial flutter heart cond. can it cause brain damage? if somebody has had a atrial fibrulation or atrial flutter for years and years, is this something that could cause brain damage?

Answer: There is a chance that a clot will form on the walls of the atria. The clot can break loose and lodge in the brain and cause a stroke. It could also lodge in a lung and cause a pulmonary embolism. I am an RN.

Question: What is the difference between atrial fibrulation and atrial flutter?

Answer: Here is the link explaining a-fib and it has charts and drawings too: http://www.heartpoint.com/afib-tellme.ht… Here is the link explaining a-flutter from the same site: http://www.heartpoint.com/specific%20arr…

Question: What is the difference between atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter?

Answer: Atrial fibrillation/flutter is a heart rhythm disorder (arrhythmia). It usually involves a rapid heart rate, in which the upper heart chambers (atria) are stimulated to contract in a very disorganized and abnormal manner. Atrial flutter is an abnormal heart rhythm that occurs in the atria of the heart. When it first occurs, it is usually associated with a fast heart rate or tachycardia, and falls into the category of supra-ventricular tachycardias. (Wikipedia) Atrial flutter is a rapid regular atrial rhythm due to an atrial macro-reentrant circuit. Symptoms are mainly palpitations. Atrial thrombi may form and embolize. Diagnosis is by ECG. Treatment involves rate control with drugs, prevention of thromboembolism with anticoagulants, and often conversion to sinus rhythm with drugs or cardioversion.(Merck) Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is a cardiac arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm) that involves the two upper chambers (atria) of the heart. It can often be identified by taking a pulse and observing that the heartbeats don't occur at regular intervals, but a conclusive indication of AF is the absence of P waves on an electrocardiogram (ECG). (Wikipedia) Atrial fibrillation is a rapid, irregularly irregular atrial rhythm. Symptoms include palpitations and sometimes weakness, dyspnea, and presyncope. Atrial thrombi often form, causing a significant risk of embolic stroke. Diagnosis is by ECG. Treatment involves rate control with drugs, prevention of thromboembolism with anticoagulation, and sometimes conversion to sinus rhythm by drugs or cardioversion. (Merck)

Question: Are there any contraindications to scuba diving with a heart condition, namely atrial flutter?

Answer: You should talk to your physician before you dive... that's just common sense, anyway, if you're planning to become a diver, but especially in the case of a cardiac problem. Good luck.

Question: PAT with block and atrial flutter. What is PAT? I had been told for 8 months, I had afib and tachycardia. Now after echo, Holter moniter, and several EKGs over 8 months, she says it is PAT with block.

Answer: Paroxysmal atrial tachycardia. Meg did a pretty good job of describing it. Atrial flutter is a condition in which the top portion of your heart (the atria) is beating more times the the bottom portion (the ventricles). Normally your heart beats with a 1:1 conduction. In AF, ir can ranges from 2:1 or 3:1 conduction. Personally I haven't seen any higher then that, but I'm sure it can exist. A block is an interruption in one of the electrical conduction pathways in the ventricles. You may already know that your heart's contractions are driven by electrical impulses. Somewhere along the line, one of the pathways has become blocked. Is it bad? Not necessarily. A lot will be determined from the results of your echo test, like your ejection fraction. I hope this helps. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions

Question: is atrial fibrulation and atrial flutter the same thing?

Answer: No. Atrial fibrillation occurs when the atrial muscles contract asynchronously, with no recognizable wave form on EKG, and a varying pattern of ventricular response. Atrial flutter occurs when the atrial muscle contracts in synchrony, but at a much faster than usual rate; is recognizable as a regular pattern on EKG, with a minimum of two (or more) atrial beats to every ventricular beat. Ralph

Question: EKG : How do you figure out the ratio in Atrial Flutter? P waves vs QRS?

Answer: Hi again, get those calipers of yours out and map and identify the flutter waves, then just count because in atial flutter conduction through the AV node can be variable

Question: Why is that atrial fibrillation seems to like to run at around 150 beats per minute? As title. How about atrial flutter? what rate does atrial flutter usually run at? What about when we just count the qrs's, they seem to spike at a rate of around 150 per minute. What's the reason for this rate of around 150? Often as soon as I say the rate is about 150, people say: ah, it could well be atrial fibrillation happening.

Answer: Atrial flutter isn't a beat or contraction. People confuse the ECG/EKG waveform with a mechanical contraction of the heart. It is just electrical activity that is erratic. The atria are not actually contracting; they are just quivering. ETA: If you are just counting the QRS complexes, you could have a rate that high. AFib looks erratic. There is variation between the QRS complexes. You may be confusing the AFib for p waves. That could be what they are correcting you on. When someone has AFib, they no longer have the sinus node as the band leader, dictating when the heart has an electrical impulse that results in a contraction. The AV node may pick up as the band leader. It isn't as fast as the SA node, so if you have a true heart rate of 150 beats per minute, you have a problem. Are you in the medical field or a family member? Ask a tame cardiologist or a knowledgeable RN to explain what is going on. :)