Borderline EKG

[latb611]

My 2 1/2 y/o daughter had 3 seizures in February. The neurologist said that they were febrile seizures but was concerned b/c she passed out before every seizure and b/c her seizures were not as intense as the should have been. So the neurologist ordered an EKG and it came back borderline. Now she wants her to see a cardiologist. I was hoping someone could explain to me what a borderline EKG means or could mean given the history?

[bo0326]

A week ago my chest felt very heavy like a ton of bricks laying on it. My primary did an ekg and wanted to send me to er, I did'nt want that so she fax a copy to a cardio that I had seen in May and he said there were no changes in my ekg. I was given a prescription for 800mg of motrin and if problem continue go to er. The motrin seem to have helped and the next day I was really feeling better. This weekend I stared having indigestion really bad in my upper left chest area and took a motrinit seem to help. I get a felling of a  pin sticking in my left breast occasionaly and some discomfort, left shoulder blade and then it disappears as quicklky as it arrives. Should I be concerned
or not?

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

Do not read too much into a borderline EKG, especially if it is the machine interpretation and not a pediatric cardiologist.

Sometimes the diagnosis of "seizures" could actually be episodes of heart block, but it does not sound like that was what the EKG was read as.  Try not to worry and schedule the appointment with a pediatric cardiologist to see what they think.  A picture is worth a 1000 words and they need to see the EKG.

Thanks for posting and good luck.

[stevie_wonder]

I would get a second opinion from a pediatric electrophysiologist (heart rhythm specialist). It sounds a little suspicious for an arrhythmia. Children often do pass out before showing seizure-like activity when having an arrythmia. My sons seizures were only stiffening up of the body, not like a usual seizure. These are characteristic of heart arrythmias.

[tickertock]

I only had one EKG that printed out borderline EKG and that same EKG stated "minimal voltage criteria for LVH could be normal variant", I guess it depends on what the EKG specifically finds that determines what is borderline, i my case the borderline EKG meant that the voltage criteria for LVH was borderline or minimal. Other bordeline EKGs could mean other findings depending on what is printed out on the EkG before it says borderline EKG for example the QTc could be borderline LONG QT, this would also print out borderline ekg, all machine computer generated EKG diagnosis has to be confirmed and reread by a trained cardiologist as sometime even abnormal ekgs are deemed normal after being read by a cardiologist, in most cases Borderline EKGs are essentially normally but probably warrants further investigation, I'm not a doctor, this only my understanding, the EKG should have some other finding/s on it that would make it print out borderline, maybe that other information would be useful in determining what test should be ordered . Good luck.