Brugada Syndrome and Atrial Flutter: Is There A Correlation?

I've always wondered about the relationship between atrial flutter or atrial fibrillation and Brugada Syndrome.

In fact you can read article after article about Brugada Syndrome and find nary a mention of atrial flutter.

Back in 1985 my husband went to the doctor for a routine check-up and was discovered to have atrial flutter. The cardiologist told him that some people spontaneously develop conditions and since he was otherwise healthy, the best thing would be to manage the flutter with digoxin.

Fast-forward to 2004 when our son was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation at age 16. He was cardioverted back to normal rhythm. The photo above was taken after he was shocked. The paddles left burns on his chest and back. He was anesthesized first, of course! The pediatric cardiologist was very interested in the family history. And they decided to manage my son's rhythm with digoxin as well.

Six months later both father and son had ICDs implanted for protection against sudden death after their Brugada Syndrome diagnoses. And my husband also was ablated to repair his atrial flutter.

Today my husband had his first appointment with his new cardiologist, Dr. Ramon Brugada. (Yes, the very same Dr.Brugada whose brothers identified the syndrome originally and who has authored so many studies on the disease.) After studying the ICD readings Dr. Brugada reported that my husband has been in atrial flutter off and on over the past six months, sometimes for ten consecutive days. For now, we are taking a wait-and-see approach, and if he has more incidences he will have to be ablated again.

So back home I began to search around to see if anyone has studied this connection between atrial flutter and BS. I found one article and plan to keep looking for others. This article identifies a higher incidence of atrial flutter or fibrillation in BS patients than the general population, but the most interesting part of the study is that they conclude that the most serious cases of Brugada Syndrome are the ones with atrial flutter. Not something that makes me feel good!

When my husband told me about his appointment at first I was pretty concerned about the flutter - I thought he was out of the woods at least regarding his atrium! But apparently you can develop new flutters even after being ablated. At least we have some explanations now for some weird sensations he's been having, sometimes after he's been traveling long distances.

Dr. Brugada also saw our son today, because of the familial connection, and took ECGs of both men. He is so knowledgeable and interesting it is wonderful to know that he's my husband's doctor.