Tachycardia minutes after a cardiac stress test...?

[foster74]

I'm 27 years old, 2 pack a day smoker (I'm quitting this year), overweight, had high BP, Cholesterol, and didn't exercise much for about 4 years. over the last 3 months I've lost 40 pounds, BP is nearly normal, Cholesterol is OK, but HDL is very low (20). I've been exercising moderately over the past month and a half, and have felt mild chest pains when near high intensity.

My doctor referred me to a cardiologist, and I took a stress test the other day. I lasted 12 minutes (due the my legs giving out), but felt OK like I could have went a bit longer. HR hit 190 BPM (target was 193). 2 minutes after getting off the treadmill I believe my BPM were around 155, at 4 minutes 142ish, and it held there for the next 2 minutes. After which is shot up to 170, or just over in a matter of seconds. Stayed at 170 for around 5-10 minutes. It was the strongest heart beats I have ever felt in my life. During this time I was breathing really heavy, and when I tried to control my breathing felt like I wasn't getting near enough air. Right before it went up to 170, and a few seconds during I felt moderately sharp chest pain in the center of my chest. During this event I was extremely fearful that I was having a heart attack, but they kept telling me the ekg looked fine, and I wasn't having a heart attack. I mentioned I have felt a bit anxious before and during the test and they said I was having a panic attack.

I have never had a full blown panic attack like that or anything close to it before. After the 5-10 minutes at 170 it dropped to 145 over the next 5 minutes. And stayed in the 140-145 range for about another 20 minutes. Then dropped to 120 over the next 5 minutes. Shortly after this they said I was stable and could be released, as I sat up (I had been lying with oxygen during most of this) my HR went back up to 135 before they disconnected me. I felt pretty uneasy over the hour, really shook up.

I have been scheduled for an echo cardiogram, but my question is do you agree this was a panic attack?  Does this sound like it could have been a heart attack? I have felt overly anxious before, but never had Tachycardia, let alone at 170BPM. And an added note, during most of the test, and after I felt pretty strong derealization, but not dizziness/loss of balance.

[ed34]

this is commonly known as being very unfit. It was also fed by your worry that something serious was wrong. Already having the hormones in your blood to raise your heart rate due to the exercise, you boosted them with your anxiety speeding the heart up again. This is not uncommon in people when they feel something is wrong and they immediately imagine the worst. Your heart is like any other muscle in the body and
needs exercise to get used to pumping faster/harder - slower/gentler. The reaction time
in which your heart responds corresponds to your fitness. As an example, when exercising, my heart used to go from 70 to 140 in about 5 seconds. Then if I suddenly sat down (not recommended) it dropped from 140 to 70 in under 20 seconds. I say not
recommended because if you want to get fit, you must be gentle with your heart. If you jump out of a chair and start running fast, you will kick start your heart into overdrive and this can cause it to go out of rhythm. You should start off walking very slowly and gradually over 10 minutes, build up to a brisk walk. Make sure that 20 mins later you are
ten mins from home walking slowly and take that last 10 mins at a slow pace to let your heart gradually slow down again. Treat your heart right and it will last a long time.
Choose a route and stick to it every day. Make mental notes of how you feel at certain stages of the route, such as "exhausted" and over the weeks you will see how these notes change to "feel great". The good thing is, if you keep this up every day for years, it will notify you of anything going wrong with your heart because you will return to notes like "felt a bit short of breath".