Heart problem- please help!

    Please help! I am a 21 year old female, and for the past 4+ years, have
  been experiencing occasional rapid heartbeat. These episodes always appear
  spontaneously, and disappear within a few minutes, until a few days ago.
  I experienced an episode unlike the previous ones; erratic, extremely fast
  heartbeat (my heart has NEVER beat that fast, even during exercise),
  sweating/chills, exaustion, and a VERY hard, heavy, pronounced heart beat-
  my whole upper torso was shaking with my heartbeat. It came on suddenly,
  like these episodes always do, however I couldn't walk out of the shopping
  mall without extreme difficulty- my symptoms have never been that bad.
  This heart rate lasted for about 1 hour, and gradually subsided to a normal
  heart rate. I am sure these symptoms aren't in relation to panic attacks-
  they occur during normal daily activity. Is it bad for my heart to suddenly
  race at speeds like that for up to an hour? Should I be evaluated further, and
  if so, how aggresively? Until this point, I have ingored these symptoms, but
  I have no doubt in my mind this last episode was serious. I was told by the
  Nurse Hotline to be evaluated while having one of these attacks- should I go
  to emergency next time this happens, or see my regular doctor? Thanks in advance.

[CCF Cardio MD-SGM]

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Dear Kelli,
The sudden episodes of rapid heartbeats that you describe are very likely due to an arrhythmia, or a disorder of the heart's normal rhythm.  Symptoms such as this in young persons are usually due to one of several causes.  The most likely are atrioventricular reentry tachycardia and  Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome(WPW).  Happily, both of these conditions can be treated and often cured with either medications or a procedure known as radiofrequency ablation, using a small catheter placed in the heart.  
I recommend that you see a cardiologist regarding this problem.  He/she can either send you for a catheter-based test that can diagnose the particular problem, or you can carry a device called a "loop recorder" with you that will record the electrocardiogram during the next episode.  This can be used to help diagnose the particular problem.  I strongly believe you should have this evaluated.  
Best of luck. Information provided in the Heart Forum is for general purposes.  Specific diagnoses and therapies can only be provided by your personal physician.