Hi Doctor,
I’m a 51-year-old non-drinking, non-smoking male who walks 2+ miles a day and is only mildly overweight. I’ve been on lithium for 15 years, and I also take Wellbutrin, Celexa, Klonopin, and Risperdal (the last three in very small amounts). I have hay fever and mild asthma. My last physical, six months ago, was perfectly normal. The exam included all standard blood and urine tests.
A few months ago, a routine electrocardiogram revealed that I was experiencing PVCs. I was also having mild chest pains -- moments of brief and infrequent ‘electric shocks’ around my left breast. I immediately consulted a cardiologist. After examining me, he concluded that there was nothing pathological about the PVCs; as a precaution, however, he ordered a stress-echo test.
I had that test yesterday. During the treadmill test, I experienced a brief episode of extremely rapid heartbeats in quick succession. It started abruptly and ended abruptly (although my heart rate remained high for some time). The technicians stopped the test very shortly thereafter; paged two nurses and two cardiologists; and continued with the “after” phase of the echocardiogram. At no time did I experience pain under my breastbone, dizziness, sweating, fainting, high or low blood pressure, or shortness of breath. In fact, I never even felt the rapid beats! Eventually, the additional doctors and nurses realized that no treatment was necessary and left.
Later, after reading the results, a third cardiologist told me that my heart is healthy. In such cases, he added, the only real danger from “benign ventricular tachycardia” is long-term; i.e., over time, too many such episodes can weaken the heart. He made two suggestions: first, wear a 48-hour heart monitor to determine the frequency, duration, and intensity of the episodes; and second, depending on the outcome, consider treatments ranging from surgery to medication to…well, nothing!
By the way, I told them all that I’d never had an abnormal ECG until starting Synthroid last spring, but none of them found that relevant or remarkable.
I have two questions. First, is ventricular tachycardia ever really benign, even in a person with a healthy heart? And second, is the standard surgery for ventricular tachycardia (up the leg vein to the heart) safe?
Thanks.