A fib in the 40's?? - page 2

I see it fairly often- 40's. usually they do buy themselves a pacer

I admitted an 80 year old patient who had chronic afib, and came in because he was feeling "tired" and "not right". His heart rate was in the 20's, and it was afib! Surprisingly he was actually tolerating it quite well (he must have had great cardiac output!), but just seeing a HR in the 20's makes us nurses nervous. Needless to say, he earned himself a pacemaker.

It's ironic that you should ask this question. Just my last shift at work, medics brought in a pt with HR in the 30s. EKG showed A fib with slow ventricular response. It was right at the end of my shift, so I am not sure the ultimate cause of it. Pt had a hx of A fib, was on dig, so everything was pointing to dig toxicity. I will have to ask next time I see the doc. The pt was quite symptomatic. Got better with some atropine, but that only works for so long (i.e. not very).