Question?

  When i was pregnant with my son, they diagnosed me having a prolapsed mitral valve. I had a sonogram of the heart, and everything, they said that it did not warrent medication. That was nine years ago, i am 33 years old and have over the past nine years had palpataions and lightheadedness.
  Yesterday, i had some kind of "attack". i was doing housework, and i bent over to pick up something, when i stood back up, my heart start beating so fast and irregular, that it felt like i had two hearts in there beating out of sinc. I couldn't breath, and i got so dizzy, i tried taking deep breaths, but i couldn't, also my arms got heavy and i could not lift them at all, i tried walking around, but it got worse and my chest started hurting, so i layed down flat and tried to take some deep breaths, after about a minute, it just stopped. This has never happened to me before and it scared me. I haven't had any skipped beats or palpatations in a while, i exercise regularly and try to eat healthy. I do drink a lot of caffine, but i have been trying to cut that down lately. Could this "attack" be related to my mitral valve, or is it something else altogether?
  thank you Leslie

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

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Dear  Leslie,  
I absolutely think you should seek the opinion of a cardiologist (preferable one who specializes in rhythm disturbances - an electrophysiologist).  It is quite possible that you have a type of heart rhythm that is now easily treatable with a single outpatient procedure - no need for life-long medications at all.   You may have what is called a supraventricular tachycardia (or SVT) that can be treated by ablation (that is burning the small short circuit pathway in his heart).  This can be diagnosed by wearing a small heart monitor around until an episode occurs.
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.