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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
signifiance of heart palpitations
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signifiance of heart palpitations
by maddy, Jun 07, 2000 12:00AM
Could you please tell me if there is any signifance to the amount and hardness of heart palpitations.
I am a 38 year old female who suffers from heart palpitations almost daily. I usually have between 10 - 20 skips or strange sensations in my heart per day. Sometimes the skips are REALLY hard. I have no heart disease and a completely normal heart so I am told not to worry.
My question is 10 - 20 abnormal beats a lot during one day and is there any significance to how hard the skips are. I am told a lot of people just ignore the skips but I can't believe they can do that when they are so intense.
Thank you for your time.
I am a 38 year old female who suffers from heart palpitations almost daily. I usually have between 10 - 20 skips or strange sensations in my heart per day. Sometimes the skips are REALLY hard. I have no heart disease and a completely normal heart so I am told not to worry.
My question is 10 - 20 abnormal beats a lot during one day and is there any significance to how hard the skips are. I am told a lot of people just ignore the skips but I can't believe they can do that when they are so intense.
Thank you for your time.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF CARDIO MD - CRC, Jun 07, 2000 12:00AM
Dear Maddy,
In general there is no medical significance as far as the type of extra heart beat associated with the strength of the sensation. However, in extreme circumstances where the patient is very bothered by what are otherwise normal beats beta-blockers can be used to decrease the sensation. 10-20 extra beats a day is not very much and personally I wouldn't take medication for so few beats but for some people it may be worth it.
In general there is no medical significance as far as the type of extra heart beat associated with the strength of the sensation. However, in extreme circumstances where the patient is very bothered by what are otherwise normal beats beta-blockers can be used to decrease the sensation. 10-20 extra beats a day is not very much and personally I wouldn't take medication for so few beats but for some people it may be worth it.
I am a 41 year old male. I too suffer from "palpitations" diagnosed by my cardiologist as Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs) over 7 years ago. The sensations that I feel sometimes take my breath away and result in light-headedness and also can sometimes be very severe in the sensations that are produced. I have seen several cardiologists for this...had echocardiogram, stress test, wore a holter monitor etc... It can be very frightening at times. I have periods of months when I do not notice them and other times when they are so prevalent that they are all I can think about. Fortunately, these intense periods usually are short lived (few weeks at a stretch). When I first experienced strong PVCs, I was like you and didn't think that I could live with these symptoms so I asked my doctor for beta blockers (Corgard). It did lessen the sensations, but all the doctors said the same thing, "Beta Blockers do not correct the condition, therefore do you really want to take the medication for the rest of your life?" I stopped taking Corgard 2 weeks after initially prescribed and haven't used it since. My suggestion to you is to have all the necessary tests to grant you peace of mind that nothing is physically wrong with your heart and stay away from the medication. You don't want to become unnecessarily dependent on them or subjected to the expense.
I am a 34 yr old male and also have bad pvcs and what "appear to be occassional runs of atrial fibrillation" according to the cardio. I have had a cardiolite stress test which was negative along with stress echos, numerous exercise stress tests, MRI's, Holters, CAT scan of heart etc.. All negative except for the pvcs and occassional afib. I'm still bothered by this because I have been experience spasm-like chest pain on and off for a few years but more frequently lately with exercise and also at rest. The pain is crushing, in the center of the chest and very fast (seconds). My cardio doesn't believe it is angina because of it's short duration. He put me on 240mg of Cardizem CD to see if it might eliminate the problem which it did for a month until today when I had another spasm. I had an endoscopy yesterday to rule out esophageal problems which was negative. What's interesting is that I took the cardizem at 5:00PM yesterday instead of in the AM as usual because of the procedure. So today I took the cardizem at 3:00PM and one hour later I had the spasm. It's strange that I haven't had the pain in a month and the one day I screw with the medication it returns. This leads me to believe it is a coronary artery spasm or esophageal spasm. Have you, or anyone else out there, experienced fast chest pain like this as a result of arrythmias or otherwise? This morning I had a strange irregular rhythm for about 10seconds. My pvcs are usually shorter, so I'm not sure what the longer arrythmias are or whether I should associate this with the chest spasms i'm having. I'm frustrated because the doctors no longer listen to me due to all of the negative tests and my cardio doesn't even believe I'm having coronary artery spasms because the pain doesn't last long enough (he said coronary spasms are usually minutes, not seconds). The cardio also says I can get off the cardizem (which scares me because the pain is not diagnosed, and believe me I hate all meds!) My health is good otherwise and I have very low cholesterol. Anyone out there ever experience this? Should I push for an angiogram even though I had a negative cardiolite test and a negative CAT scan of the heart showing 0 calcium. I could use some good feedback. Thanks all.
I am a 34 yr old male and also have bad pvcs and what "appear to be occassional runs of atrial fibrillation" according to the cardio. I have had a cardiolite stress test which was negative along with stress echos, numerous exercise stress tests, MRI's, Holters, CAT scan of heart etc.. All negative except for the pvcs and occassional afib. I'm still bothered by this because I have been experience spasm-like chest pain on and off for a few years but more frequently lately with exercise and also at rest. The pain is crushing, in the center of the chest and very fast (seconds). My cardio doesn't believe it is angina because of it's short duration. He put me on 240mg of Cardizem CD to see if it might eliminate the problem which it did for a month until today when I had another spasm. I had an endoscopy yesterday to rule out esophageal problems which was negative. What's interesting is that I took the cardizem at 5:00PM yesterday instead of in the AM as usual because of the procedure. So today I took the cardizem at 3:00PM and one hour later I had the spasm. It's strange that I haven't had the pain in a month and the one day I screw with the medication it returns. This leads me to believe it is a coronary artery spasm or esophageal spasm. Have you, or anyone else out there, experienced fast chest pain like this as a result of arrythmias or otherwise? This morning I had a strange irregular rhythm for about 10seconds. My pvcs are usually shorter, so I'm not sure what the longer arrythmias are or whether I should associate this with the chest spasms i'm having. I'm frustrated because the doctors no longer listen to me due to all of the negative tests and my cardio doesn't even believe I'm having coronary artery