Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Support Group

Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is an abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia) which involves the two small, upper heart chambers (the atria). Heart beats in a normal heart begin after electricity generated in the atria by the sinoatrial node spread through the heart and cause contraction of the heart muscle and pumping of blood.

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IslandLuvr 02/22/2016

I'm a little confused about something, and wonder if you can help clarify. When is an irregular heart rhythm considered Afib? I KNOW what the big time Afib feels like-- racing heart with the rhythm all over the place.

I also know what PACs and PVCs are-- a fairly regular heart beat with an early beat, and then a catch up beat.

But what is it when you have a heart beat that's in the normal 60 bpm range, rhythm is steady but you have a PAC or PVC after five beats, then steady for 7 beats, then PAC or PVC, then stead, then PAC after 3 beats. Is that considered Afib too?

That s what I have most of the time.... a feeling of a regular heart beat with a "jump" every 5 to 7 beats... .sometimes every 30 beats.

yogacat 02/22/2016

Hi Island, You have afib any time your atria fibrillates.... When it fibrillates and quivers you loose the natural rhythm to your heart beat.

If your atria is not fibrillating, you are not in afib.

I have been diagnosed with atria flutter and I have brief SVT and PACs, but they are not like you describe.

IslandLuvr 02/22/2016

I'm confused. So is what I described considered afib?

marikay234 02/23/2016

No....frequent PACs and PVCs are just that.....premature beats. Atrial fib is when the atria fibrillate. They may feel similar but all irregular heartbeats are not a fib.

IslandLuvr 02/23/2016

Hmm... OK. I'm just trying to be able to tell the difference between PAC and PVC-- as opposed to afib. So, what I described sounds more like PACs and PVCs.

The reason I'm asking is because my EP said that once I'm in afib more than 30-percent of the time, that's when the danger for remodeling of the heart begins. So if my "full blown-- fast heartrate and irregular beats are the only afib I'm having, then I'm still in it just a very small portion of time-- like once a month for four hours.

duder 02/24/2016

If your arrhythmia feels like an abnormal beat punctuated by several normal beats, it's probably not afib.

twodrifters 02/25/2016

My EP explains it as "irregularly irregular." I have so many PACs and PVCs that it can be difficult to tell if it's afib. I do use my AliveCor sensor/app when I need to try to figure it out, and sometimes send off for a technologist to read it for $2.

Premature beats are considered normal rhythm, crazy as that seems to me. They can be quite inconvenient.

twodrifters

cindy7150 02/28/2016

I've just come through a spell of PVCs (had a cardiologist appointment during that spell and he heard the PVCs). I describe is as beat.....beat....beat.beat pause and so on. PVCs are not chaotic like Afib.

pacyetep 02/28/2016

When is it afib?

I've been thinking of a good answer to this question. Here goes...

Question: When is it afib?

Answer: When it's afib.

petey

pacyetep 02/28/2016

That is because you can't count on knowing by listening for an irregularly irregular beat. Mine is so close to even, my doctor thinks I'm in NSR till he does the ECG. Second, not everyone with afib has an increased heart rate above 100... or even above the 70s. Lastly, you may feel nothing. I don' feel anything.

The only way to know is to get an ecg and have afib diagnosed by the characteristic missing P wave replaced by fibrillations (wavy lines) AND the irregularly irregular ventricular beat (heart beat) that is visible on the graph and usually identified using an algorithm that displays a message on the ecg screen.

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