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Heart Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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Subject: Re: SVT I am a 38 year old woman with a history of thyroid disease. A couple of years ago I had my first incident of tachycardia in the middle of the night. It was very scary, and I thought I was dying. After talking to the doctor's office(family doctor) on the phone the next day, I was scheduled for an echo and prescribed inderal. I was taking the inderal when I had the echo. Would that make a difference in the test results? Anyway, I was diagnosed with MVP. The inderal was effective for the tacycardia, but made me very lethargic. Without the inderal I continued to have episodes of tachycardia and mild to moderate breathlessness. The family doc then decided that the problem might be thyroid, but the endocrinologist ruled that out and suggested a 24hr holter monitor. The results from this said my heart rate was all supraventricular with episodes of tachycardia, some lower than 50 beats per minute rates and PVC's. I was placed on a low dose of sectral which for the most part is effective. I have not had any PVC's (that I have noticed) since beginning the sectral. I still have occasional episodes of a fast heart rate, especially when doing something simple which involves raising my arms above my head, eg., washing my hair in the shower, dusting the top of the windows. I can live with this. My questions are, What does supraventricular mean? Is it normal for my heart rate to be all supraventricular? My doctor does not seem to be concerned about any of this. Is that O.K.? My mother has CHF with tricuspid insufficiency. Her symptoms started out similar to mine. Could this be an inherited problem? One more question; I had thyroid cancer and was treated with a lobectomy. The endocrinologist wants me on suppressive therapy to reduce the amount of TSH my body produces.(as I understand this) He generally likes my TSH levels to be below 1. Will a TSH level this low affect my heart rate? Thank you for any information. Cheryl Dear Cheryl Inderal would not have affected the echo. Supraventricular means that the heart rate originates from the top chambers of the heart; the point is that none of it is ventricular, such as PVCs. Certain forms of heart failure are inherited. If your echo was normal, this is unlikely. If you are on a large dose of synthroid, it could make the heart rate act up. However, you should follow your endocrinologist's recommendations. 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. If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem. | |
