Re: Atrial FibrillationTachycardia and extra Heart Beat

Posted By CCF CARDIO MD - MTR on March 21, 1999 at 10:13:56:

In Reply to: Atrial FibrillationTachycardia and extra Heart Beat posted by Tonya Carden on March 17, 1999 at 12:29:56:






I wrote to you on 3-5-99 under the same subject message, you advised that I see a caridiolagist and that I might need to get off the covera, well I went to a cardiolagist, he ran an echocardiogram and then some other test that required that I walk on a treadmill then they injected some radioative stuff in a IV( I had to fast before this test)then they took pitcures of my heart to see how the blood was flowing are something, then they had me to go for lunch I was not allowed to eat anything soilid , I was to return for more test with a pint of  milk, they had  me to drink the milk and then they injecteded me again with some more radioactive stuff and took some more pitcures, I am supose to go back go back for the results on 3-22-99. The problem is yesterday while I was seting at my desk I had the granddaddy of all palpations, I had never had one to hit so hard, It felt like I had an alien in my chest trying to get out,imediatly following this paipations I got real dizzy and almost fell out of my chair.I had to grab ahold of my desk to keep from falling. I called my doctor and he said to go to the hospital they ran an ekg there were several pvc except when they printed the strip there where none on it so my ekg looked fine. they kelpted me over night,they put me on another 24 hr heart monitor and changed my medicain from cover 240 to antenolol tab 25 MG  2 times a day. and meclizine HCI 25mg 3 times a day for dizzyness and an aspren a day, This is not my cordioligist, but my family doc, my cardioligist is in another town, I do belive that my family doctor talked to him though. Where I am getting confussed is that they keep telling me that there is nothing to worry about, but yet they keep running all these test, and they flat out told my husband and I that if this was him that they would be air flying him out to Tyler, but they just tell me its nothing to worry about just ignore it( my husband is 31 and I am 36) .I was told that with women that they don't worry much about these things unless they had dizzy spells shortness of breath  or fainting, well so for I have all but the fainting and to me the palpation are very symptamatic, I just don't know what else to do.Anyhelp you have to offer me will be greatly apperciated. By the way during the writing af this letter I had 65 palpation make that 66 the reason I know is because  of the heart monitor, I had to right them all down,  I don't make a habit out of counting them, add 3 more to it.       Thanks Tonya






Dear Tonya, thank you for your question.  Without knowing the results of your echocardiogram and stress test, I can't determine what the cause of your palpitations is.   However, I will try to clear up the confusion.  Most often, premature beats of the atria and ventricles are not noticed (everyone has them).  However, some people are extra-sensitive to premature beats and experience significant palpitations.  If your echocardiogram and stress test are normal, then you have benign premature beats that will not harm you and will not affect your health.  The key thing to do if this is the case is to find a way to cope with the premature beats and try medications (like atenolol) that can limit the number of premature beats that you have.  Men have a much higher incidence of coronary artery disease (atherosclerosis) than women so I think your physician was taking that into consideration when he told you how he would treat men and women differently.  For you, that's good news since that means you have a very low likelihood of having coronary artery disease.  
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.  Good luck.
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.