ablation for flutter

I have had two episodes of atrial flutter which occurred during (or right after) long running races (2+hours).  In both cases, I had ingested a lot of caffeine in the form of numerous espresso gels during the race.  In both cases it went away on its own in about 1.5 hours of resting/hydrating. Other races and hard training efforts without any caffeine were without issue.  My cardiologist dismisses the correlation of caffeine, but something tells me there is a relation.  Is a correlation likely?  Also, I would like to try a few more races without caffeine and see if I can establish more data points for my theory.  What are the risks of race-pace efforts if one has a known history of atrial flutter?  All heart testing/imaging showed my heart to be in great condition other than the flutter.  He would prefer I did not race, and have an ablation procedure.  But I would like to rule out the possibility of caffeine triggers before I go tinkering with my heart.  How else can I rule out caffeine as a trigger without more racing?


This discussion is related to PACs (while exercising) after ablation for Atrial Flutter.