p waves

[Donna-lee]

Stu had a post ablation check up and the cardiologist said there were no noticable p waves on his echo? Then he said this was not a prob what does this mean??

[va_tony]

Donna

When p waves are not visible on an ekg chart, it is usually an indication that the patient is in afib.

What kind of an ablation did Stu have for his aflutter? If it was an AV node ablation, the afib wouldn't be a problem now because the atria would be electrically disconnected from the ventricles.  I would bet that's what he had. As I recall, Stu had a pacemaker and that is no doubt pacing his heart rate (ventricles). As the doc says, there's nothing to worry about as long as he feels OK.

[ireneo]

I have a little ECG Interpretation book that's fun to look at. When I looked up missing P waves it said: Absent P waves may signify conduction by a route other than the sinoatrial (SA) node.  I also looked at the example of a-fib and there isn't a clear P wave, just very little squiggles.

[Donna-lee]

The ablation was to get rid of atrial flutter circuit. The cardiologist that did the ablation said that now was a wait and see incase atrial fibralation became a problem. So far Stu feels so much better although he gets some sharp pains that knock him for a 6.

[tickertock]

absent p waves are usually an indication of a junctional rhythm from what i remember, i could be totally wrong though.