my 14 year olds heart misses beats

[katie92]

hiya well i have a 14 year old girl who is 5 foot 5 and weights 8 and a half stone. is healthy and is a dancer. but for the past 3 months her heart has been missing beats and has chest pain. the doctors diagnosed the pain as tietze syndrome. ECGs are normal but showed signs of tacyhcardia(pulse rate over 100) but at home her pulse is between 60 to 80 on our heart monitor. her blood pressure is normal. x-ray and thyroid normal as well. we are on a waiting list for a 24 hour ECG which is 4 months. Doctors have said she will be fine to wait but she keeps thinking she is going to die everyday i have told her if there was anything wrong the doctors would know. she also thinks she will have a heart attack or just die suddenly. is this possible? is it very normal for girls of her age to have this? or do you think there is something wrong. apart from the missing beats she feels altogether fine and not un well at all. i would be grateful for any replies thanks

[CCF-M.D.-MJM]

Hello Katie,

I am sorry to hear your daughter is struggling with these feelings.  Tietze syndrome is a chest pain syndrome caused by chondritis or inflammation of the cartilage in our chest.  It accounts for about 10% of all chest pains syndromes and 30% of hospital visits for chest pain.

It would be VERY unusual for a 14 year old to have a heart attack.  I can't say it never happens, but if it does, it is usually associated with very unusual and uncommon circumstances like clotting disorders or illicit drugs.  It would be much more common for someone with these concerns to have an anxiety or panic disorder.  Anxiety is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning we must first rule out other causes for chest pains with an EKG, sometimes an echocardiogram, and holter monitor.  For the holter to help with the diagnosis, it is very helpful if she has her symptoms while wearing the monitor.  Some arrhythmias can also cause a feeling that you are about to die, but only in very rare cases are they actually dangerous.

If your doctor thinks there is not a serious concern, they are probably right.  If this isn't reassuring enough, get a second opinion.  It could be very reassuring for your peace of mind.

I hope this answers your questions.  Good luck and thanks for posting.

[momto3girls]

Hi there,

I'm so sorry your daughter is having these missing beats and is scared of them.  Poor thing!  Of course she's scared, if she can feel these beats then I'm sure her heart rhythm feels very scary to her.  I doubt your doctor would overlook something serious, being that she's so young especially.  

I too have these heart skips, flutters, etc. and I'm doing just fine and have had all the same tests with normal results.  Did they do an echocardiogram?  That would reassure you and her that the structure of her heart is fine.  Is there any heart problems in your family?  I really feel for your daughter and you (I have 3 little girls myself) having to deal with this.  I'm an adult and it was hard to accept that these strange beats wouldn't harm me.  I imagine it's even harder for a 14 year old girl.  Well, my prayers are with you and her.  Good luck and I'm sure the forum doctor will give you really good advice for your daughter.  Bottom line though, if you feel uneasy about your doctors diagnosis, I would absolutely go to someone else.  I was always weary of changing doctors or pursuing extra tests because I was afraid they'd call me neurotic and anxious.  However, for any of my daughters, I'd have no problem being more aggressive for their health if I felt the need.  Best wishes (:

momto3girls

[woodruff]

Katie, you can google Tietze's Syndrome (as can your daughter) and learn about it that way.  As to the pvcs, here's a nice discussion at a respectable website:

http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/arrhythmias/a/PVC.htm

You should both find it reassuring that her tests are normal.  However, if her anxiety gets overwhelming, I'd certainly recommend going to a counselor.  There are exercises and techniques designed to desensitize you to these beats.

However, one caution:  If she's a dancer, it would be good to make sure she's not flirting with anything like bulimia to control her weight.  That can affect the heart.

[kitcurious]

I did a tremendous amount of dance exercise (still do some) when I was a teenager as part of theatre training.  You can twist something or pull something and have it cause chest pain.

Your daughter may want to seek counseling because if her heart rate and BP are normal at home, but elevated at the doctor's, it's possible this happens when something makes her a bit nervous.

[CollegeGirl143]

from the tests you described so far, it would seem that she is ok. The palpitations are normal. Try and get her some counseling for the fear shes having.