post ablation

[FT]

I had a successful ablation for atrial flutter in Sept. 2000 at Univ of Penn by Dr. Marchliniski. I also have AV node re-entry tach. that 3 previous times they were unable to induce in ablation attempts. Currently I am on 100 mg of flecainide. My most recent Holter monitor reading showed mild sinus arrythmia with lots of supraventricular ectopic beats"(SVE's),0approx. 5000 in a 24 hr period. I also showed some runs of bradycardia, which my cardio Dr. thinks is from the flecainide. Also,regarding these SVE's, about 400 of them were paired. There was no V-tach on the report.Are these SVE's dangerous, just by the shear number of them, and will they aggravate the AV node re-enrty tach. Also, will a ablation of the node be necessary at some point, to stop all this extra heart activity I have. I am otherwise a healthy 38 year old mother of 2 children.

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

Dear ft,
No, the SVEs are not "dangerous" but they may be aggravating and could lead to other arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation.  It is possible they are coming from the pulmonary veins and there are new techniques that allow us to map these and ablate them.  If you are willing to travel to Cleveland I would recommend coming out for a consultation with Dr. Andrea Natale.  Depending on what your rhythm looks like he may be able to ablate the focus causing the problem.

[FR]

Additional Post ablation info. The flecainide is 100 mg   2x a day. I also take 325mg of asprin once a day.