Straining (the valsalva maneuver mentioned above) can provoke lowered blood pressure and lowered heart rate. It’s a possible fix to Atrial fibrillation and other supraventricular tachycardia rhythms.
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The next day he was clearly “out of it” and had to be driven back to Memphis to recuperate.
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This makes me highly doubt this account. Why would Elvis drive from LA to Memphis? He owned several planes.
True, but isn’t it possible for the switch from afib to normal sinus rhythm to dislodge an existing clot? Anytime I was electrically cardioverted they had me take a course of anticoagulants beforehand to ward off heart attacks and/or strokes. The valsava maneuver did work for me sometimes, but obviously not every time, because why else the electroconversion?
Yes, if the afib has been there long enough to allow clot formation (atypically felt to be more than 48 hours) however those dislodged clots rarely enter the coronary arteries (to cause a heart attack). More more common to head (hehe) up the carotids to cause stroke or more rarely further downstream to cause renal infarcts or ischemic limbs.