"A" Flutter

[Ihatepalps2]

Hi! A dear co-worker of mine ( 44 year old female) was just diagnosed with " A" Flutter. Can somebody explain this to me in plain english? Is it life threatening?

[Donna-lee]

My husband develop A flutter. He was cardioverted but it didn't last so he had an ablation which burn't the path that was faulty and tht was successful. I agree its very scary when one moment your fine and the next a condition you know nothing about. www.heartcenteronline.com has a lot of infor on a flutter.
Regards Donna

[Marie007]

Hi,

As ireneo wrote, a-fib and a-flutter are very similar except a-fib is irregular rhythm and a-flutter is fast but regular.  Imagine your heartrate when doing hard exercise.  Now imagine your heart pumping like that in a resting state, never slowing down on its own.  It's exhasting to say the least.  There's a variety of meds that can control the rate (called chemical cardioversion) and if that doesn't work the next step is electrocardioversion.  Electrocardioversion sounds much scarier than it actually is - the patient is out during the brief procedure.  This does not harm your heart and can be done a number of times in an attempt to convert.  Next would be an ablation.  Ablations for a-flutter are dopne much faster than a-fib because in typical flutter the pulse is coming from one area of the heart and easier to find and ablate.  Also has a much higher success rate than a-fib ablation.

She's very fortunate to have such caring co-workers/friends.  What were her symptoms that she sought medical help?  These conditions can also be "silent" and only diagnosed during a routine medical exam.  Neither fib/flutter are life threatening on their own.  Because in both cases the heart isn't pumping the blood properly there's a risk of clotting.   Most patients with these arrythmias are on anticoagulants (coumadin, warfarin or aspirin therapy) to keep the blood from clotting.  

There are many different opinions on why this happens.  Life's stresses are often dismissed as a cause.  If she's exhausted from this experience, the best thing anyone can do for her is help her keep up with her workload, perhaps cook or do some shopping - whatever she'll let you do.  

Marie

[Ihatepalps2]

Thank you so much for your response!! That clears it up alot for me. Shes still in the hospital--I guess this morning they had to cardiovert her---it scared us all, sitting here at work worrying about her. Now, someone has talked to her and shes better, and we feel a bit better. Ive passed on your message to my whole team, so we at least have an idea of what is going on with her.
Thanks again!

[ireneo]

Atrial flutter is similar to atrial fibrillation but more regular. The atrium (upper chamber of the heart) can beat at 250-400 beats a minute while the ventricals will beat a bit slower. Only some of the atrial beats will trigger a ventricular response - could be a 2:1 or 4:1 ratio for example. I suppose, like a-fib, if an episode lasts for hours there would be a chance of a clot forming. During my first ablation I had some a-flutter but it seems they were able to bring that one under control. At least no one's mentioned it since then. The doctors may have your friend start with some medications to manage it. Hope that helps a bit. Of course the best source of info is to click on health topics up top here and see what that says.