Holter monitor

Question

I had a 24 hour Holter monitor study last week.  My GP called and told me that it was fine:  high HR 104, low HR 47 and 5 PACs.  Sounded good to me.

Now, I just got a call from my cardiologist and he said that it "wasn't a pretty study" and looked like I was shaking.  He said that my high HR was about 150 and I must have been exercising at that time.  I did not exercise during the study and I don't recall "shaking".  He is ordering a 30 day monitor.

So I've had time to process what he said and I just don't get it.  What could cause the study to look that way?  Does it mean that my heart was doing something bad and it made it look shaky?  I'm honestly scared now that something is wrong with me.

Any ideas?

Resting

is_something_wrong · Accepted Answer

From my experience, GP's basically looks at the summaries, while cardiologists examine the whole rhythm strip (I always wonder how they have got the time to do that..)

The automatic summary are more "skeptic" than the manual review, as I understand it. It often counts ordinary beats as PACs (as it's just a formula deciding, in example "20% or more earlier than expected"). It often (always) counts PACs with abberancy as PVCs. It basicly count every heartbeat with a QRS wider than xxx msec as PVCs. I have borderline wide QRS complexes and the stupid machine counted parts of my Holter as AIVR even if P waves were present.

Anyway, if the machine counted 104 as highest heart rate, it probably is. There is a possibility there was a very short run at 150, (a triplet or something) though. But I support your conclusion, most likely two different reports.

Madge270 · Answer

My guess is that there was something wrong with how the machine was functioning.

Resting · Answer

I called my GP and she got her info from someone on staff and I talked directly with the Cardiologist.  The GP called the Cardiologist and he told her that it was artifacts most likely just caused by something with the machine.  He doesn't want to redo the 24 hour so we'll go for the 30 day.

I just wish I could take a deep breath and not over react all the time.

Thanks for your advice everyone.

Resting

itdood · Answer

I'm with Jenny, sounds like they were looking at two different reports.

jennyfi1234 · Answer

Thats really funny that your doctor had one result and the cardio another? I would call your regular doctor back and ask them to find out what is going on, because maybe there is a mix up on reports. Not sure how it works everywhere else, but here, if there is a problem, your gp gets that word also.

Holter monitor

Painful jabs front of throat and top of chest with PACs

15000-20000 pvcs a day which become way less when walking or doing household stuff

Safe Blood Pressure on Metoprolol Succinate

Starting propranolol 10 mg tonight

Painful jabs front of throat and top of chest with PACs

15000-20000 pvcs a day which become way less when walking or doing household stuff

Safe Blood Pressure on Metoprolol Succinate

Starting propranolol 10 mg tonight

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