Can a person have mini episodes of V Fib and then get their heart back on track after a few seconds of the V Fib? Or once you go into ventricular fibrillation, that’s it until you get a shock or the heart stops or starts back at a normal beat on it’s own?
When I say mini episodes, I mean going into vfib for 3 to 5 seconds while the heart is shaking or vibrating inside the chest and doing what it does while in vfib, then getting back on a regular beat after those few seconds?
Is that known to happen? Has anyone who ever went into a full fledged V Fib complained of mini episodes before their major episode?
Premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) and ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib) are unrelated. PVCs are ectopic beats that arise from somewhere down in the ventricles, and may or may not be perfusing beats (heartbeats that pump any blood).
PVCs are related to ventricular tachycardia (V-Tach)- a rapid rhythm that arises from the ventricles. If you have one, or a few ventricular beats they’re PVCs. If you have more than a few (I learned 6+, but the sources I found all say 3+) ventricular beats in a row, it’s considered V-Tach.
V-Fib is completely disorganized electrical activity that results in the heart essentially quivering and not pumping any blood.
I don’t know about mini episodes, but… In late October I went into full V Feb. Went to local ER on a Wens. 6 am., lots of IV drugs, O2, and EKG monitor. Transfered to NYU Thurs. night, 11:30 PM. Sat. afternoon I droped out of V Fib, no Shock paddles; although they planed one for Sunday if my heart rate didn’t drop. I am sure all the drugs, they gave me, got me out of V Fib; don’t remeber most, nitro was one.
On Cumiden, and Toporol now.
Heart rate was 195 at ER, was Prob. in V Fib since late Monday.
I don’t know if there are such things as mini episodes of V Fib. But If you feel like crap, can’t walk with out effort, and are short of breth; check your pulse, if it is racing, get your ass to an ER!
Are you sure you didn’t have A-Fib? The scenario you discribe sounds like Atrial fibrillation. A-Fib is a very serious condition, requiring swift intervention to prevent complications such as stroke. Ventricular fibrillation or v-fib, is a dire, life-threatening medical emergency, that, if not corrected within minutes causes death.
I was wondering about that, too. For a few years I have been dealing with ideopathic atrial fibrillation (O! The joys of being a “physically active middle-aged male”). Twice in this time, when I have come out of fibrillation I have gone into atrial flutter and then into one-to-one conduction–this latter thing leaving me gray-faced, clammy, out of breath, with a pain in my jaw and a heartbeat no longer chaotic but running along around 200 or so. The EMTs treated me as if it were V-tach, but at the ER the head of Cardiology grabbed all the docs and nurses to use me as a teaching moment to show my EKG and how one-to-one conduction can be mistaken for V-tach. As for V-fib, I too heard that it was a minutes-to-death kind of thing.
I’ve had two ablations to deal with the atrial flutter. It’s been a year since the last one and so far so good.
Oh, and to answer this as if the question were about A-fib (which it seems to match, esp. para 2), I went maybe 30 years with “mini-episodes” of a few seconds or so that I did not recognize as A-fib until I was diagnosed in my mid-50s after my first extended episode that lasted a few hours. At that time I thought, oh, I’ve felt like this before, but for only for a short time each.
This sounds similar to what happened to me just before Christmas.
I was sitting at my desk when suddenly my vision telescoped and my heart started racing. I started panting and felt very warm and my fingers felt numb. I thought I might be able to ‘walk it off’ but instead ended up in a coworkers office and told her to call an ambulance because something was wrong.
My heart slowed from about 220 to 150 by the time they got here, but then I had another episode on the way down the elevator, and again in the ambulance, and in the ER a few times. I was eventually released and told to follow up with a family doctor. He thinks it’s Supraventricular Tachycardia. I get my Holster at the end of March for 48 hours to see what’s up.
I experience similar feelings when I’m exercising and occasionally when I’m relaxed or trying to sleep, but I haven’t gone fully into the same degree of heart flutters. It feels like it takes a half beat, then flutters a few times, beats, flutters, etc. for a half minute or so. It has been restarting itself, but in this episode by Christmas I assume it didn’t.
Thanks guys, I’m in no way looking for a diagnosis, just curious if there are such things as mini vfibs. I have been getting PVCs for years until recently. Recently they’ve gotten much worse. But, I’m not gonna self diagnose. I am actually scheduled to see my Heart Doc at 2pm tomorrow.
These new episodes of PVCs feel the same as a skipped beat, well, they start out like that, but then end up with my heart beating extremely fast for 5 or 6 beats really lightly, but superfast, then it’ll skip a beat again and then a thud, then nothing it feels like, then I have to strain to get my heart back into a normal rhythm again. Deathly scary.
It’s EXTREMELY scary and each time I feel like my heart won’t ever start back again. I’ve been so scared recently that I’ve been looking into getting the heartstart system on heartstart.com or whatever. I take Toprol 75mg daily for this issue, because my PVC’s were so bad that I rarely didn’t go less than 5 minutes without a PVC or two or three.
I’ve just gotten over A-Fib. To me it felt like my cellphone was doing a little vibration test in my pocket. I found out about it when I failed the pulse test when giving blood. I did a cardioversion which didn’t work, then the doctor put me on Amiodarone, and scheduled me for another one. Monday when I did an EKG my heard was bouncing all around, Thursday when I went in, they put a probe on me and the A-Fib went away. Haven’t felt the vibration since.
They were kind of surprised that I didn’t have any pain etc. BTW Cheney got a cardioversion late last year, and the report said that his A-Fib was minor compared to the V-Fib he had before.
What you’re describing are salvos of V-tach, or runs of PVCs. Even if they arise from the same focus, (area of the heart from which the impulses arise.) some may perfuse, while others don’t. The frightened feeling you have is typical, (That feeling of impending doom, I mentioned earlier.) That fear is your body’s way of saying: “Get me some help!”
I’m very happy to hear you’ll see your cardiologist tomorrow.
Or even better, call 911. Paramedics are required to be trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support and should have 12-lead monitor-defibrillators. If you have a serious tachycardia, your treatment could begin on scene and continue on the way to the hospital, rather than waiting until you get to the ER, sign in at triage, etc.