Tachycardia

I've had an echo stress test and holter monitor done for
fast heart rate.  I was supposed to wear the holter monitor for a week
but everytime I put it on it would go off because of my elevated heart
rate so was told to stop.  The stress test showed nothing either
except fast heart rate (180 bpm at 5 minutes).  Doctor put me on 25 mg
of Toprol XL to slow heart rate.  I have a history of fast heart rate.  Sometimes
when I roll over it clicks on and beats over 220 bpm.   I can always bring
it back to normal by taking deep breaths and holding  it.  Twice my heart
went into a quivering or fluttering action which really scared me.  Nothing
I did would make it go back in.  It went in by itself.  This was before the
Toprol XL.  I still have palpatations and mild fluttering with medicine.  
My question is if the doctor couldn't really find anything wrong do I
need to stay on this medicine forever or get a second opionion.  I know I
have different problems going on but since they always stop is it really
serious or not?

[CCF-M.D.-CRC]

Dear Mis,
There are many causes of fast heart beats.  The first step is to determine what type of fast heart rate you are having.  Given your history I suspect you may have a condition called AV nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT).  The best way to diagnosis this is with a Holter monitor or event recorder.  Alternatively you can go to the ER the next time you have an episode and get an EKG.  Once the diagnosis is made the treatment can be determined.  If it is AVNRT this can be cured with a procedure called an ablation or treated with medications.  The type of doctor who deals with these problems is a type of cardiologist called an electrophysiologist.  I would suggest seeing an electrophysiologist for further evaluation and treatment.

[VALERIA]

The first thing I ever noticed with my heart was a fast heart rate. This happened in 1993. Since that day it happened everyday since. I was 32. I never saw a doctor about it because after a while I just became use to it. It  would seem to bother me more in the A.M. after getting up, and especially after eating breakfast or other meals. When it starts it feels like my stomach tightens up or something, just an uncomfortable feeling. Then I usually know  by the way my stomach feels, my pulse it taking off. In 1998, this one day it statred up as usual, but nevered slow down. I couldnt get up from the chair to go a few steps without it taking off. I finally went to the E.R. and has blood work and a electrocardiogram, and was told it was sinus tachcardia. Since then I have now a cardiologist, and had echo test, monitors everything. Was started on Toprol in 1999. On 25mg. to start noticed immediate relief, but since then the doctor has increased the Toprol to 3 tablets (150mg) daily. Still get the fast rate, but I guess better than before, also I have the pac
s or the pvc's, it was never caught on a monitor, but by my symptons  that is what the doctor said they most likley are. My mother, sister and nephew have this. My sister and nephew had ablations for wpw, although my nephew problems are starting to return.
Also my symtons come much more around that time of the month.
It is frustrating for sure.

[Shelly02]

I was diagnosed w/ tachycardia at the age of 5.  It started w/ a urinary tract infection and lead into tachycardia. I was in and out of the hospital a few times and went thru all the heart monitor stuff and also was on toprol i believe (little orange pills?).  It was quite scary and i remember the doctors telling me that if my heart raced suddenly that i could stick my head in cold water or have someone hold me in a headstand position lol.  i'm now 21 and my cardiologist the last time i saw him told me i grew out of it at the age of 9 or 10.  He said i still have a heart murmur and that i should still have a check-up once a year.  Now that i look back i wonder how can you just grow out of something just like that? Can that really happen? i dont think so b/c sometimes i still get those heart race attacks or as my mother calls them now panic attacks.  i'm a little confused on exactly what i have.

[chrishaz]

I had tachycardia attacks starting at around 7 years of age that I can remember.  They happened 1 or 2 times per year, and maybe lasted 5-10 minutes.  Then at 20 I had one that lasted 5 hours, I got scared.  I did the holter, with negative results.  Of course I didn't have an attack when I had it on.  Most of the tests I was put through came back negative, echo, ekg, holter etc.  but eventually after bugging doctors about my lack of stamina, enlarged heart (seen in chest x-ray) and slight murmur, I was catheterized and a large Atrial Septal defect was found.  The hole was fixed but I was amazed at how much work I had to put into getting the docs to do the cath.  I encourage everyone to bug your docs if you KNOW something is not right.  Sometimes when they aren't sure or you don't display with textbook symptoms they will say it is in your head (or imply it).  By the way, the tachy attacks I had were caused by the blood flowing through the hole and hitting the nerve just right on the wall of my heart...(my mom used to tell me they were panic attacks and all in my head)

[jan]

I have read and been told that if you have tachycardia or syncope when you are young, the chances are you will outgrow it.  I am 45 now and was diagnosed a few years ago with Inappropriate Sinus Tachy. and with syncope.  My cardio told me I will have the tachy all my life, but it could be because it is from my sinus node (?). The syncope, they really don't know because it isn't common in older people.
Just thought I would share that with you. Hope it helps, but if not keep searching until you get your answers and some peace.

[Shelly02]

i think i had the more serious type i forget what it was called but i'm pretty sure that's what i had.

[jan]

Well, Shelly, I don't know.  I do know that my meds for bladder infections are lil orange pills and my Toprol is white tabs (and my other cardio meds don't fit the orange pill description, either). I don't know if that is any help to you or not. If you think your cardio is wrong, I don't think he would mind giving you a holter or event monitor to put you at ease.

[pukiariki]

All my children have Tachycardia, my oldest daughter had corrective surgery for Wolfs Parkinsons White Syndrome.My concern is that my son (25yrs) had a heart attack 4 moonths ago but the doctors do not relate this to the Tachycardia or the W.P.W. I find this hard to believe but my son is having an angiogram next week.We wait for ever for health care here in New Zealand, he should have had something done sooner to find out why he suffered such a major heart attack.

[jan]

pukiariki and any one else that would like to share with others and get some support, please come visit this support group:

http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/heartsafire

We can all be a help and encouragement to one another.  :o)

[RachL]

I'm a 35 yr old female & was diagnosed with Left Ventricular Tachycardia about 8 years ago, at the same time they also discovered a leaking heart valve. The leaking valve is only a mild condition( so I've been told ) The tachycardia causes me a great deal of anxiety & problems. The symptoms start with a sensation of not breathing, my heart feels as if it's stopped (I can feel no pulse) & light headed, then my heart kicks in with a vengance & races at about 220 bmp. This can last from 1 minute to to an hour, when it does slow down & stop thumping SO hard it levels off at about 130bmp for anything up to a few hours. After, I'm left feeling very scared, tired & cold. I also get mild palpitations several times a day & chest pain, under arm pain, neck & shoulder pain. Sometimes the pain is a constant dull ache, other times it is  a sharp stabbing pain. I've been told that the pain & palpitations are due to my leaky valve ( I also cannot sleep on my left side as this makes my heart feel as if it's struggling to beat, almost like I'm squashing it!)
My cardiologist has done a lots of test, but we don't seem to be getting any further, seems there is nothing they can do other than surgery, which involves burning some of the hearts nerve endings, but he does not recomend this for me.
Does anyone else experience these same sensations or does anyone have any advice for me?
Thanks in advance
RachL

[VALERIA]

I posted above, and I wanted to add something that I forgot to mention above.
I also get this weird event every couple of weeks or so. When I first noticed it in 1996, it was every couple of months it would happen.
What happens is, I can feel fine, then my heart will flutter or something, like it beating real slow, I cough or do something with a quick motion, like walk jump or walk fast, then it goes from the slow or out of rythym beat to a real fast but normal rythym, then it slow down to the normal rate and sometimes I get a hot feeling up through my face and the event is over. This thing when it happens scares the hek out of me, because when it is beating slow, until it picks up, I sometimes feel like I may pass out. The Toprol has help keep this event somewhat.
I tried to post questions on this website for a couple of years now, since I been coming here, but each day the same page comes up saying , no longer taking questions for that day.
So does this event I get sound familiar to anyone else?

[Gozza]

I'm 30 years of age in good health and just yesterday was diagnosed with SVT (echo and blood films norm). Ive had the only one documented attack and my cardiologist put me on 80mg of solatol twice a day and see how I went for a week. The other attacks which I have had are more of anxiety/ panic attacks which do scare me somewhat because of the way I feel at times such as uncontrolable tremor, sweating, breathing difficulties, instant lethargy, withdrawn amongs others. The cardiologist said this might be due to maybe me thinking about the previous SVT attack (therefor a panic attack begining) or an SVT starting and not clicking over to a full SVT. Could this be the case and if so why did he put me on a drug such as sotalol (as I've heard its harsh) is it maybe to calm me down with respect to my anxiety attacks and if I do see that within 2weeks my anxiety attacks goes away does that mean that I wont experience an SVT therafter. Also if I have such a non-lifethreating SVT why put me on meds in the first place and why does it feel life-threatining when I had an SVT or a nearly SVT/panic attack? Does it become lifethreatening as we become older? My appologies for the long post and thankyou in-advance for any reply.

[EzOne]

My Doctor has sugested " Amiodarone " for my Tachycardia.
comments anyone ?

[LindaJ.]

I began to have tachycardia problems in 1995 and was told that they were "stress attacks."  My heart beat would be around 210 for at least 15 minutes.  I thought I was dying.  I was put on several different meds, then had ablation done in 1998 as my tachycardia went into fib. one day.  The ablation was unsuccessful because the doctor said he couldn't find where the tachycardia was coming from so he couldn't ablate any area.  I now take Cardizem CD (250).  I still have palpitations, but I haven't gone into tachycardia for at least two years.  Hope this helps someone.

[pikamom]

I've been lurking on this site for several days now but couldn't post a question as it's full. So I'll respond to this one. Last week I had my second ER visit in a year for tachycardia and angina. One year ago was the first time it happened and my EKG showed changes like the heart wasn't getting enough oxygen and constant tachycardia. I was given several tests that were normal but the cardiologist wanted me to use nitro when I had chest pain and to come back in 6 months. I'm 37 and female and was told there was a very low chance that anything would be wrong with my heart. But the angina and tachycardia problems continued although I didn't go back to the cardiologist until last week a really bad attack I thought sure was a heart attack. In the ER they said my EKG was very abnormal and that I was headed for a heart attack. I had an emergency catheterization which showed a normal heart. Now my cardiologist thinks I probably have coronary artery spasm and that my constant tachycardia will eventually weaken my heart. It was hard for him to decide which medicine would be best since I have a history of severe depression with 2 suicide attempts, and also in addition to the psychiatric meds I take meds for a bladder disease called interstitial cystitis that give me terrible bladder spasms. Anyway, I started taking cardizem yesterday and hope this puts an end to the racing heart and chest pain. I wanted to add that 2 years ago when I was in the psychiactric unit I was informed my resting pulse was 120 and that if I started exercizing regularly and cut out caffiene that would help. I did those along with losing 60 pounds as my depression lessened, but I still have a resting heart rate between 120 and 140.

[dmorse03]

SVT:

I occasionally have what appears to me to be Super Ventrical Tachycardia with steady beats 120 BPM and higher, sometimes lasting several hours.
I am 80 yrs of age and take no medicine. I am active and do not suffer from stress induced by worrying.
I have experienced this for as long as I can remember but lately it lasts quite a bit longer.
The last one, I became somewhat weak and unsteady. The one thing new that I noticed is that it is accompanied by a tightness in the area of the esophagus from the throat area down to the Hiatus.
At times it seemed to improve with NaHCo3. But in the last instance, nothing seemed to help except time.
It existed at bedtime and returned to normal before wakeup. Can you point me to webpage which addresses the possible Esophagus-Tachycardia connection?

D Morse
***@****

[22scared]

HI, I am 22 years old and have just recently been bothered with svt, It seems that all of this stared when I became pregnant,and I very concerned.  When I first experienced this I was at work at it had happened three times in a row.  My heart rate at the hospital was 155 beats.  I felt very faint and they tried to tell me that I was having an anxiety attack.  Does anyone think that this is just happening because of the pregnacy,  I have only experienced this once after my intial visit to the hospital.  I am not on any meds,  any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  I am concered for my baby as well as my health

[arthur]

Go see a cardiologist.  Get checked out with some simple, non-invasive tests to see if everything in the ticker is functioning normally (which it sounds like it should be)...there are many who are pregnant that complain of this type of arrhythmia, so it's probably nothing to get too worked up about...however, I would double check with the cardio.

[sadeyes]

just want to say how much better i feel knowing i am not alone with my problem i have been told by my family dr. i have ventricular tachycardia first spell about 20yrs ago the dr wont put me on medication said the spells are not aften enough sometimes i go a month or more none then get two a day they can last from couple min. to 5or6hrs i usually can get them stopped by putting pressure on my stomach and drinking cold water but i live in fear every day of them i also have to be very careful not to stoop over fast or sleep on my left side or i get one will someone please tell me what i should do i live iv a rural area hard to find a dr. or would get second openion please help me going crazy with worry that one of these spells will be my last thing

[Podgie]

I have been experiencing tachycardia episodes for close to 22 years now.  For the last 5 years I have had to take medication (Verapimil 240 mg). I haven't experience but 2 minor episodes since being on the medication. I am concerned that my pottasium levels play a part in my tachycardia. The last time I had to go to the ER, my blood work showed that I had hardly any pottasium in my system. My cardio Dr. says that there is no correlation between the two. But I know that Pottasium is needed for a healthy heart. Also if anyone has had an ablation for superventricular tachy. I am scheduled for one in June.
If anyone has experience the low pottasium situation or the ablation I would like to know your thoughts or concerns on them.

[VALERIA]

IF SOMEONE READS MY POST AT THE TOP OF THIS TACHYCARDIA LIST, AND HAS AN IDEA OR EXPERIENCE THE SAME SYMPTONS, PLEASE POST.
THANKS.

[Partofmypath]

I CAN NOT BELIEVE YOUR CARDIOLOGIST SAID THERE WS NO CORRELATION B/T RACING HEARTS AND LOW PATASIUM/MAGNESIUM!!!!   Here is a site I found for you :  http://www.execpc.com/~magnesum/cardio.html#FACTORS

I am a 17 year old female. I was going to school - travelling - and just doing my thing. One day (shorlty after I had returned to Austraila from my home town Seattle Wa) - I was catching up with a friend for coffee - about two hours later (while I was still out w/ my friend) my heart just started racing. It felt like adrenolin being released over and over again and almost took my breath away. I thought perhaps I was having a severe 'panic attack' (something i had never experienced b4 to that extent) so i tried to ignore it. The whole drive home it would not let up - I started getting worried. When i got home I informed my mom that I was having MAJOR panick attacks - but the feelings preceeded (in a comfy environment - where I felt no anxiety usually). She thought maybe it was a alergic (allergic) reaction to the IbuProphin I had taken earlier (as I usually only take Tylenol for cramps). Off to the ER we went (I had to lie down in the back of the car) They were very busy and told me it was anxiety and to go home - I felt my heart pound al night long and felt sick with fear. The next day I felt a little better - but the day after I had this feeling ev 5 mins and was frustrated as i was told it was all in my head - (how scary to think you can create such a feeling). I could no longer deal with it and went to a diff hospital - they put me right in hooked me up to ev thing and put a drip in my arm. After lying there for 40 mins - calmly with a nice 70bpm - I felt the same 'hot/cold' wave of pain over my heart - it then continued to rie to 160bpm - and i was in an ustable state - they had to do the Rapid IV push 3 times and hook me up to atenolol after that.Truely thought I was going to die - and the feelings from the RIVPush were intensly unbearable. The preceeding weeks it was hard to differentiate b/t anxiet(from all that had happened) and SVT itself. I was on atenolol for a week - but was told to avoid it if i could. I think they gave it to me to keep me calm. They also gave me valium if i needed it - but i only took it once in hospital as i hadnt slept. Later I saw a psychologist weekly and we worked on removing the panic/anxiety from the feeling of the rapid heart beat - I have only had the feeling twice since leaving hospital - and I am becoming braver and dealing with it in a calm manor. The felings are still unpleasant however the extreme fear with anxiety symptoms are begining to subside. I had to go through that scary night (as many seem to have to do) and deal with the fact that it may happen again at any time. Once I worked through the Post traumatic SS though - It has become much easier to live with. I also see a naturopath who keeps my body stong (magnesium - potassium - which conduct the electo activity in our body fluids - wchich has an effect on the hearts electroactivity) and vit - B - etc etc - as anxiety is strongest when the body is weak/ worndown - running off adrenoline. - thanks for letting me post my story - knowing this is not uncommon holds much comfort for me ...   PartOfMyPath. PS - it has been noted that 40% of svt patients (women) will be misdiognosed with an anxiety dissorder.!!

[sairabeth]

my 5 year daughter also has wolff parkinson white. she has had an ablation but it was unsuccessful and is now taking atenolol. i would appreciate any comments or information from anyone in the same situation or on the same medication. i feel that i could use some support.

[Lisa101871]

My daughter was diagnosed with svt at 2 months old. She had a heart rate of 305. She was put on meds. She has over come the svt I had thought, well i have an appointment at athe cardiologist the end of july. She has been tired falling asleep in school. I dont know what to do. 168 is the highest I have recorded. It seems to jump around within seconds. She is now 4 years old. She is quite active so I get kinda nervous when her teacher and I notice a definate differance in her behavior and activity.

[Lisa101871]

lulh

[kamie]

today I was diagnosed with svt and prescribed sectral.  Has anyone else taken this medicine?  I have been on panic attack and depression medicine for 10 years .  I am 29 and i feel as if i can never breathe but was always told it was anxietyuntil today.  if anyone knows anything that would help me I would really love to hear from you.  thanks