Advice on extrasystoles

[cavortingcheetah]

If you want to raise your potassium levels try eating bananas drizzled with Marmite.

[gingernut]

Electrolytes have an important role.

Visit a greengrocer and you won't go far wrong.

Getting back to the "extra beat" thread, I suspect RADGIRL is spot on :-)

[flymo253]

Thanks all for your kind help! I do really appreciate it!

The cause for my extrasystoles? My doc said that it could be the green tea, stress etc. But it is definitely nothing organic.

Seems that everyone here (including the several doctors I have been to), is convinced that I am healthy. Except my AME. He says it does not make me "unfit to fly" but still not wants to issue the medical class 1..

Let's wait what the next 24h holter reveals..

[Thomas coupling]

I remember my AME picking up on extra beats. Eventually I had to wear a 24hr holter monitor. They fit it in the hospital and seal the unit to stop you tampering.
On the way home, I got caught up in traffic and the delay made me hungry so I pulled into a McD and ordered this and that AND a coke.
Ooooh la la - my heart went beserk with ectopics - absolutely beserk.
Realising this would do me no good in the review, I got home opened the holter and erased all the recording!
I rang the hospital up and told them it didnt seem to be working - so they gave me another one......and I stayed well clear of coke!
I passed the 2nd test!

[flymo253]

@Thomas: not bad! Do you think it is related to the caffeine in coke? Nice to hear that you passed the second test!

I still have no new news about my latest 24h holter. My AME/AMC will receive the results of the 24h holter tomorrow. I neither know whether my extrasystoles (16% in fact) during the first holter were only related to green tea nor if they have deminished during the last holter. Guess I will have an answer next week..

Does anyone know if, according to EASA requirements, a specific number of extrasystoles makes one "unfit to fly"? Flying is my love, my life, my everything. I don't want to lose it..

[Thomas coupling]

Flymo, when I was tested, the CAA maximum was 13%.
Over that they ground you. It may have changed since 2007.

[flymo253]

I just found the newest EASA requirements on my regulator's website. According to EASA, there is no limiting number of extrasystoles you can have. However they must be monomorphic (that means that they all have the same form/origin) and you are not allowed to have any other symptoms. AND you must have perfomed a positive stress ECG + echo (which I did). Let's wait and see..

[Soft Parade]

@ Thomas_coupling: Hi, where have you done your medical? When i opened this thread one month ago, i didn't have the information you mentioned about the 13% limit and i'm pretty happy about it as I have 10.5% of extrasystoles...

@ flymo253: Can you please pass me the link you're referring to? As in your case, my extrasystoles are monomorphic and echo is "good even for pilots", as the cardiologist said. Also, whenever there are more than 100 beats per minute, extrasystoles completely disappear. The cardiologist (not an AME, I haven't done my initial yet) concluded that the heart is "healthy and strong" and that there shouldn't be any problems.

However, on this very thread, you can find the information that anyone who has more than 5 extrasystoles per minute would be grounded. But then, the two criteria are incompatible: I have an average of 8 extrasystoles per minute but at the same time I have less than 13% of extrasystoles. Which of the two criteria is more important? Not to mention this new piece of information flymo253 provided, according to which there isn't the limit of extrasystoles to begin with...

Thanks!

[flymo253]

@SoftParade: I have sent you a PM! I am in the same situation as you! During my exercise ECG I didn't have any extrasystoles. My doc said that this is a good sign since heart problems would show up at latest during an exercise ECG. My echo was perfectly normal as well. After my first ECG holter in which I had 16% of extrasystoles (hopefully it was just the huge amount of green tea!), my AME said that this "does definitively not make me unfit to fly". Though, he wants some more investigations.


Guess I won't hear anything new from my AME before next year.. However, I will call my GP tomorrow so he can provide me with the results of the second fu***** holter!

By the way: radgirl said that, in case you have more than five extrasystoles during a "normal" ECG, further investigations might be deemed necessary. Radgirl didn't say that it grounds you. (Or did I misunderstood you, Radgirl?)

[flymo253]

Can you bypass an AME?

Hello all!

I am in a very unpleasent situation right now. I went for my initial class 1 medical (EASA / germany) back in October last year. On the ECG, I had some extrasystoles. I conducted an exercise ECG as well as an echo. Both showed a structally normal, healthy and strong heart. No indications at all. Then I had to do two 24 hour ECGs which showed monophorbic ventricular extrasystoles. During the first holter, I had about 15% and on the second holter it was much less already. According to EASA, I have done everything to get a medical class 1. Even the cardiologist said that I am fine. But my AME won't believe it. He refuses to issue me the medical. He wants to send me to an electrophysiologist assuming that there might be something wrong with any ventricle (actually without any indication that there *might* be something wrong).

Long story short, a friend of mine (a captain) brought up the idea to approach the licensing authority (in my case the LBA) directly or consult another AME.

What do you think? Is there anything I can do or shall I obey my AME's instructions?

Any help is highly appreciated!

Best regards
flymo253

[space-shuttle-driver]

flymo, you got a PM.