A fib in the 40's??

[Morganalefey]

Hi everyone!

I got a direct admit last night, who had gone to see the cardiologist (general malaise), who did an EKG that determined she was A fib, with a rate in the 40's. Has anyone every seen A fib w/a rate that low?

He told her to come to the hospital to be admitted, which she did 4-5 hours after her appointment with him. To make a long story short, by the time I got her, she had converted to sinus brady (40's-50's), so I never got to see the A fib with the low rate.

I was just curious if anyone had ever seen A fib w/a low heart rate?

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

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).