Atrial arrhythmia caused by swallowing

Posted By Peter Burton on December 04, 1997 at 21:52:50:









What possible connection can there be with swallowing and an atrial
arrhythmia?  I have had about a 5 year on again, off again history with
atrial arrhythmias.  No apparent reason exists to account for them. They
seem to last for about 3-4 months then leave for awhile.  Last year I had
zero arrhythmia occurrences and was able to run 1700 km, including a
marathon.  I do not generally get any arrhythmias unless I swallow.  It
actually makes eating difficult at times because the rhythum gets so lost.
The correlation with swallowing is 100%.  Even if I run or exercise nothing
happens unless I swallow.  My heart rate monitor shows a pulse rate of
140 bpm and immediately after I swallow it jumps to 230 for a short period of
time.  If I press on my carotid artery before and during a swallow the
chances of the arrhythmia are less.  Any ideas?  I recently had an EP study
done which confirmed no apparent cause.  When the study was done the
arrhythmia had gone dormant and I couldn't cause one to save my life.  Is it
possible that the study could come up negative if something like WPW were
the cause of all this?  Sorry for all the questions but a doctor suggested
it could be Lown-Ganong-Levine Syndrome.  What is that?  Thankyou for any
help.