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I Went To The Er Yesterday For A Serious Atrial
Question: I went to the er yesterday for a serious atrial flutter. I was dehydrated. i was given iv cardizem for a few hours, then orally. After a few hours it stopped. I was given 2 more doses of the short acting cardizem during the day and discharged, but much to my XXXXXXX after asking 3 times, they said to get the ER Cardizem and take it when I got home. It didn't agree with me. It RAISED my BP and heart rate and put me back into fib. It felt like a cardizem overdose. I don't feel as bad as I did an hour ago, but I am still in fib and don't know what to do. I do NOT want to go back to the er. I would have thought too much cardizem would lower my BP and heart rate, but it had the opposite effect. Can you help? The short acting cardizem seems to work fine and before I went to sleep my BP was normal as was my heart rate. I have no CAD.
Brief Answer:
Please refer to the detailed answer below
Detailed Answer:
Hello sir
After going through the medical details provided by you I can very well understand your concern for your health and I would like to tell you that Cardizem contains diltiazem which belongs to calcium channel blocker group of medications.
It’s basically a preferred drug in atrial fibrillation for control of heart rate and it doesn’t revert atrial fibrillation. As you are having AFIB from along time now so the prefered treatment is rate control to keep heart function maintained.
Cardizem is supposed to lower heart rate along with some effect on blood pressure, didn’t understood what you meant by “it had the opposite effect”.
And you are not having any overdose of Cardizem.
If you are presently experiencing symptoms of palpitations or giddiness then it’s better to go to ER.
Hope this information will guide you properly.
Kind Regards
Dr Bhanu Partap
Please refer to the detailed answer below
Detailed Answer:
Hello sir
After going through the medical details provided by you I can very well understand your concern for your health and I would like to tell you that Cardizem contains diltiazem which belongs to calcium channel blocker group of medications.
It’s basically a preferred drug in atrial fibrillation for control of heart rate and it doesn’t revert atrial fibrillation. As you are having AFIB from along time now so the prefered treatment is rate control to keep heart function maintained.
Cardizem is supposed to lower heart rate along with some effect on blood pressure, didn’t understood what you meant by “it had the opposite effect”.
And you are not having any overdose of Cardizem.
If you are presently experiencing symptoms of palpitations or giddiness then it’s better to go to ER.
Hope this information will guide you properly.
Kind Regards
Dr Bhanu Partap
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Yogesh D
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