Any link between Apnea and atrial fibrillation

[BigJohn2]

Has anyone who suffers from atrial Fibrillation found any improvement when they began treatment for sleep apnea?

[jamiswolf]

Hi John,
Before I started XPAP treatment, during sleep I'd occasionally find myself wide awake with my heart pounding. Almost certainly from a bad desat. If I were prone to atrial fib or tachcardia, I'm sure that those desats would have been enough to kick my heart into an irregularity.

You should be on medication with this condition and I'd bet money that OSA treatment will improve things for you.

That's my take...for what it's worth.
J

[BigJohn2]

jamiswolf:

I am on medication, but my reason for my post was to see if others who have the two conditions have experienced any improvement to the A-Fib with the addition of CPAP.

[BlackSpinner]

jamiswolf:

I am on medication, but my reason for my post was to see if others who have the two conditions have experienced any improvement to the A-Fib with the addition of CPAP.

Yes there are others. But they haven't been online today.
Must be super bowl crazies.

Try the search box on the upper left side of the page

[GumbyCT]

Must be super bowl crazies.

Was that today? geez louise

[jamiswolf]

Bigjohn2 wrote: my reason for my post was to see if others who have the two conditions have experienced any improvement to the A-Fib with the addition of CPAP

Hi John,
I figured it was either the above...or you were curious about a causative link. Just thought I'd share my opinion and hopefully some of the members that Blackspinner referenced will chime in. Have you experienced an improvement?
Jamis

[Slinky]

I have A fib and OSA. I was Dx'd w/the A fib after being on PAP therapy for several years - but - while my PAP therapy brought great sleep improvement it took us until AFTER A fib struck and before truly successful PAP therapy.

AND my A fib was very mild and almost certainly has another secondary cause, COPD. I began experiencing strong, erratic heartbeats about once a month for 5 months and then had one episode of extreme SOB, chest pain as well as the strong, erratic heartbeats that lasted 4 hours or so plus whilst the other episodes (no or only mild pain in chest, tightness in throat, plus the strong, erratic heartbeats) usually lasted less than 15-20 minutes. I was put on a 30 day event monitor and had 2 episodes whilst on it, one "severe", one "critical", neither of longer than 30-60 minute duration. I've responded well to medication (coumadin, Rythmol and Toprol) and my recent event monitor had only normal sinus rhythm and I'm hoping that I can taper to a "pill in the pocket" medicating regimen. My successful response to medication coincided w/the improvemnt in my PAP therapy. Which could all be coincidental.

[Bons]

We'll see. Hubby is off having another titration right now. He's been in and out of a-fib for two years. Infections seem to cause him to slip into it. The anesthesiologist for his lower GI surgery and the cardiologist finally sent him off to the sleep center. The sleep doctor says that his sleep apnea might be a factor as well. His 02 sats went down into the low 70's during the initial study, and were prolonged.

So now we are a three-pap family (out of 4).

[tonycog]

I had a huge battle with AFib. When I was first diagnosed, my cardiologist suggested a sleep study. The sleep study showed that I have Cheyne-Stokes breathing, a form of Central Apnea. They suspect that the apnea is/was the cause of AFib but they can't know for sure. My episodes with AFib became more frequent and more severe. Many episodes lasted from between 8 and 36 hours. One lasted for 10 days, another for 11 and the longest episode lasted for 13 days and did not respond to cardio-version (shocking). This was after Bi-PAP therapy had begun, despite 100% compliance. No medicine was effective at controlling AFib although Tikosyn was the most effective.

I had a successful (so far) ablation on September 1, 2009 at the University of Kansas Heart Hospital by Dr. Lakkireddy. I am still 100% compliant with Bi-PAP and take nothing but a beta-blocker to help with an accelerated heart rate, which apparently is not uncommon after an ablation. I occasionally have some heart palpitations but I am pretty certain that they are not AFib. I'm hopeful that by avoiding oxygen deprivation during sleep I can avoid AFib from here forward.

If you want to search my posts, you can find more that I wrote about AFib while my battle was raging.

Best wishes and NSR,
Tony

[HoseCrusher]

I am developing a history of sinus rhythm, but have had a few occasions of afib. My cardiologist asked me if I snored and stopped breathing when I sleep, and I told him that my wife hovers over me at night to move me to start breathing again. He set up my appointment to get a sleep study and has taken an active interest in how xPAP therapy helps my heart.

About the same time I discovered that magnesium can help with heart rhythms.

When I stop taking magnesium, my heart gets erratic. When I "chemically convert" using magnesium, and make it a priority to eat foods high in magnesium and supplement with it, I stay in sinus rhythm.

xPAP takes care of the desaturations and snoring and helps me maintain a normal pulse rate. Magnesium keeps me out of afib.

[midnight_skulker]

I was diagnosed with persistent Afib. My cardiologist said a large percentage of people with Afib also have sleep apnea. He arranged an appointment for a sleep study administered by a pulmonologist. The diagnosis was that I do have sleep apnea. I have now been on bipap for only a week and, so far, I have not noticed any difference..

My Afib is under control with meds. Unfortunately, one of the meds, amiodarone, caused me to be so short-winded that I could not walk to the mail box without resting and my rib cage was sore from stuggling to breathe. So the pulmonologist did a complete lung function study and told me to never take amiodarone again. Apparently there are a number of meds that can be used to control Afib.

[BigJohn2]

I treat my A-Fib with beta blockers that slow my heart beat, other medications that regulate the A-Fib didn't work consistently and cardio version was ruled out because I frequently slip into and out of A-Fib. I now am in A-fib normally but the beta blockers slow my rapid heart beat and I live with the irregularity of the beat, and my Internal medicine doctor and my cardiologist say this is acceptable.

My CPAP equipment arrives Wed. and I'll keep you filled in as to my progress.

[jedimark]

My AF symptoms didn't show up till after 9 or so months on CPAP.

It was first brought to my attention during a nice ER visit a week after having my appendix out, and a couple of weeks again after that. The first time I needed given a couple of jolts to reset, but my body seems to revert naturally now. I've had similar things happen before all this, and never guessed it may have been AF causing it. I have found high stress can knock me into abnormal rhythm..

I am very suspicious about the periodic breathing episodes I'm getting, and think they may be related. So far I haven't managed to record oximetery on a night where I get the clusters with PB.

Perhaps the oximeters photo-plethy has a reasonable enough resolution to give an indication of AF?

I'm early 30's, so I kinda wasn't expecting to have to deal with this stuff.
Probably breathed too much solder fumes and took a few to many 240V jolts working on live electronics back when I was a techy.

[Slinky]

At what point do you think that the periodic breathing numbers are more than just an "occurence" and become a matter to consider investigating??

I just blew a nice opportunity to "investigate". I just finished a 21 day event monitor, never thought during the event monitor to record my oximetry overnight AND I stayed on my Resmed S8 VPAP Auto instead of switching to my PR S1 BPAP Auto. Duh!!! That was sure one blown opportunity.

I've only had idle curiosity about the PB I encounter as the number tends to fluctuate from next to none to "quite a few" (w/NO idea when "quite a few" becomes a "matter of interest").

[SleepyJohn]

I found this article last year referring to a study that links AF with mild/moderate Apnea:

http://www.stopafib.org/newsitem.cfm/NEWSID/211
http://www.jhucct.com/shhs/papers/abshhs102.htm

There are a number of different types of AF, but it seems likely that CPAP treatment would be beneficial, and by preventing apneas would help towards preventing triggering AF.

There is a lot of useful info on Hans Larsen's site http://www.afibbers.org/homepage.htm