Rapid Heartrate at Rest

I was diagsnosed as having a basilar migraine due to a normal lumbar puncture, MRI, and blood work. My symptoms are photophobia (extreme), tinnitus, and vertigo.

This has been ongoing for two months. During this time my heartrate at rest has been 95-100 consistently. I thought is was the steroids (prednisone) increasing it. (80 mg X 4 days, 60 X4, 40X4, 20x7, 10 X7 but my doc stopped me at 3 days on the 10 b/c of heartrate). I have been off of them for 3 days completely.

Previously to the whole event my rest heart rate was in the 60s or 70s. I was vey active before the migraine. I have been stressed over the whole situation and taking Xanx 0.5 mg 3X a day.

My Blood pressure is normal at  anywhere from 110-126 over 75-80.  My fasting blood sugar was higher during the steroids at 100 but has now dropped to a normal 75.

I am 32 years old, female, 184 pounds..

My questions are as follows:
Do my symptoms that were diagnosed as migraine concern you to look for other causations related to the heart or  when you consider my high heart rate?

IF the steroids increased teh heart rate (prednisone) how long would it take to clear my system and drop the heart rate?

Could this indicate something else occured in the brain other than migraine to disrupt the heart rhytm?

If so, what test should I request?

Can stress incrase the heart rate this high at rest? Why isn't the blood pressure elevated if so?

I can an echocardogram just before the big event and it was normal. I had it because my heart rate felt slow and skipping beats in the morning (just opposite of now). I was normal and I was doing endurance bike riding. the endurance riding seemed to resolved the slow skiping. beats.

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

1. Other than heart rate, your symptoms do not sound cardiac related.  

2. Steroids would be out of your system within a few days and a short burst of steroids wouldn't be expected to make any last effects, especially on the heart.

3. I have not heard of migraines causing rapid heart rates before.  I cannot think of any persistant changes that a migraine would cause to leave you with an elevated heart rate.

4.  Stress can increase heart rate.  If it is stress related, I cannot tell you why your blood pressure isn't elevated as well.

I don't have a good answer for your elevated heart rates.  This can be complicated to diagnose and sometimes even goes without an answer whether it resolves or not.

I hope this helps.