Post Cardiac Ablation 4wk less 1.0 AHI

[Catatrina]

I had a cardiac ablation for atrial fibrillation 12/8/10; I have had diagnosis of sleep apnea since 9/08. I have had more a-fib in 2010 especially
since 4/2010; cardiac rhythm meds didn't seem to control the paroxysmal a-fib that I had. So it was decided that I would be a good candidate
for a cardiac ablation especially since when I had a-fib I would go in and out of it lasting no more than 8hrs and perhaps will be eventually able to go off these cardiac drugs. What I have discovered in the past three weeks is that my AHI has been coming down from about average of 5 to 6 AHI to now 1.0 to 0.5 AHI, I find that remarkable! I recently saw my cardiac doc whom specializes in electrophysiology; I told him knowing that to do this ablation they went to the back of the heart near where the pulmonary veins
are and "burned off tissue near the AV nodes which lie near the pulmonary vein" I told him that I have had no a-fib episodes and also noted
that possibly I am having less apnea because of this procedure. He quickly said to me "I am not going to take credit for that" but he agreed that
it was interesting that there is less apnea. So I will remain with the cardiac rhythm drugs and the "Pradaxa [a new version of anti-coag drug
replacing Coumadin] for next 3 months. But this could be good news?? I am curious if anyone else has had this procedure and like myself if they have experienced
less apnea events while on their CPAP machine post cardiac ablation?

[Slinky]

INTERESTING, Catarina. I was just Dx'd w/A fib last fall. My longest episode tho was maybe 3-4 hours. The A fib started about once a month in March of 2010 until August or September - at least the ones that I was aware of. Did the 30 day event monitor bit, was Dx'd w/A fib and started on coumadin and Diltiazem (calcium channel blocker). A fib events were increasing so the Diltiazem dose was increased and then Rythmol was added. The Rythmol addition seems to have done the trick - at least so far. I'm sorry that the A fib meds weren't doing the trick for you but glad to hear that so far the ablation has.

[snnnark]

What was the nature of your AHI? Did you have NRI's or just hypopneas and apneas?

[Slinky]

Snnnark, I take it you are asking what Catatrina's INR blood draw results were? I'm guessing the NRI was a typo? Took me a while to figger it out.

Catatrina, I hit send too soon before congratulating you on the lowered AHI as well! It will be interesting if others encounter this. I'm no help because of no ablation and because of a VPAP pressure change at almost the same time as the start of the first A fib med.

[snnnark]

Sorry Slinky, I was asking the OP about her data! She has the same machine as me and NRI's are what the Intellipap call centrals. Non Responding Index or some such nonsense.

My thinking is that if her AHI was central in nature then restoring the heartbeat could well have fixed them. There was a study done where pacemakers were used to treat SBD which was disproved in a following study. But to me it makes sense that if blood is flowing well then CO2 based central apneas/hypopneas are less likely to occur.