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Heart Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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Subject: Re: Low Heart Rate My daughter (age 23) has a low heart rate - 45 bpm. She has had an EKG and a holter test and both confirm that she has a "normal" rate at times but other times the rate is in the 40's. She is 6' tall and weighs 155 lbs. Her symptoms are dizziness when she stands up and times when she faints. She played team basketball during high school, but in the past two years she hasn't been in any organized sport. Is this something we should be concerned with and if so, what should we do?
Dear Colleen, your daughter appears to be having symptoms from her slow heart rate with the dizziness and fainting spells. The first thing to exclude would be other medications that she may be taking that could slow down her heart rate. Secondly, did she record her episodes and fainting spells while she was wearing the Holter Monitor to help correlate the heart rate to her symptoms? Nonetheless, her slow heart rate may be concerning if it is truly causing dizziness and fainting episodes. She may eventually need a pacemaker to prevent the periods of slow heart rate, but you speak to her physician about this. The most appropriate doctor for her to see would be a cardiac electrophysiologist who specializes in cardiac rhythm disturbances. I hope you find this information useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only. Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions. |
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