Can MS cause tachycardia?

[LisaMS]

Is tachycardia, stiffneck, shooting pains in legs and arms, and a low grade fever a symptom of MS?

[vanhawk48]

One  more  thing , please check  out  this  link , there are  questions and  answers from medical world    http://www.msfacts.org/dcforum/DCForumID1/4727.html
Hope  you  can open this link
Vanda

[vanhawk48]

Hi  Lulu
I like your  two  cents .
Since my  procedure in 2000 , I  have  never  have  any  rapid  heart bit incident . I  am  free from  this  affliction . Sometimes  I  feel  like  my  heart would  like  to  jump  on  a  higher  gear  , but  over  the  years  I  have  learned  to  push  my  eye balls  and  start  coughing  , which  occasionally  would  help  me  out  to  stop the incidents .
Anyway  , I dont'  miss  it  , but  like  you  yourself  , I  am pretty sure  about  connections between  MS  and  my  rapid  heart bit .
I  was  dx   with  MS  in September 07 .
Thank you  again  for you  comments .

[Lulu54]

Oh my Vanda, That was some serious accelerated rhythm .. 267 must have felt like your heart was going to explode out of your chest.  Cardiac Ablation is fairly common to slow down the heart rate when it gets that out of control.  If you have heart questions  pm me and I will send you the website of the womenheart board I post on.  Talk about a savvy group of medical consumers - those women know it all and would be happy to help with your questions.  BUT I should point out I am the only one there with MS and HD.

I am more convinced than ever that even though these are separate body systems they are all more  interconnected than the specialists will admit or realize themselves.

That's my two cents!
Lulu

[LATW]

Interesting.  I have had problems with tachycardia since I was 16. At that time I was dx'd with high blood pressure, tachycardia, and put on Inderal.  

I am 45 and have been on bp meds and a beta blocker all of these years.  

I was dx'd with MS this February 2008.

LA

[vanhawk48]

No one  has told me  either , but  like  you  yourself  , I  would  be  willing  to  believe  that there  is  some connection between  MS and tachycardia .
Occasionally  , I  go  surfing  different  webs  in order  to  find  some  answers , but  so far  no  luck .
We'll  see .
Hope  to  learn  more about .
Thank you
Torey  and  all of you  who responded

[needanswers54]

No one has told me so.  But, I think that there may be a connection.  I have always been on the bradycardic side.  This past year I became tachycardic up to ~200bpm with elevated bp 226/126.  Quite unusual for me, also.

I had an enhanced lesion in my spinal cord.  After my symptoms started to abate I had another MRI done.  The enhancement was gone.  

It would seem to me that since lesions in the neck can cause respiratory and other problems if high in the neck, I do not see why, therefore, cardiace symptomology could not therefore follow, even if only secondarily or tertiary.  But, I am not a doctor.  I know that there is a concern with spinal cord damaged patients.  So, couldn't  person having a flair that affects particular areas of the CNS have similar symptoms?  Just a thought to ponder.  More insight would be appreciated.

Thanks for your post and everyone's comments!!!

Torey

[vanhawk48]

I  don't know  if there is  connection between  Tachycardia and MS , I can  only  write  about  my  own  experience .
I am  51 year  old , at  the  age  of  19 , I  had  my  first  episode of  tachycardia .
Than  for  years  it  was  coming  more  and  more  often . At  first  it  was  occasionally ,
than  almost  one  e  year  , than  few  times   a  year  , finaly  in 2000  I have  had it like  every week .
I could not  tell  what  they could  be  attributed  to .
For  help  , I went  to  a  cardiologist , and  in  May  2000 , I  have  had  a  procedure called  " Catheter  Oblation " ( I  dont  know  about spelling ).
Since  than  , I  am free from  tachycardia  , but  MS  came to   surface  in  2006 .
I  have  never  checked my  symptoms  against  any  desease , althought  looking  back  , I  have  several  vertigo , walking problem  , back  problem  and  paresthesias of  the  left  side of  my  body .
No  , I  had  no  clue  what it  was  , and  never  searched for  answer .
Have  my  first  brain  MRI  in  Oct .  2006 , results  were  two  bigger about 1 cm  lesions  and  multiple  other .
This  year  I  have  follow  up  MRI , the  radiologist report was " no  changes  since  the  last MRI " , but  my  Neuro  found  at least  two  lesions  on my  cervical spine , wchich  were not  documented  by  radiologist .
So  coming back to  your  question , I  personally  believe  there is  connection between  tachycardia  and  MS .
The  heart  procedure  I  have  had  is nothing  more  than  zapping  the extra  bio electrical  signal  which  comes  to  heart  and  causes  it  to jump up its rate .
At  times  up  to  267 a minute .
Few  times  they  had  to stop  my heart  and  start again in order to restore  its natural bit . Kind of  painful , but  I am  doing  very  well . As a  matter of  fact  , three  weeks after  my  heart  procedure  , I  was  in Egypt  climbing  Mount Sinai .
Hope  this  would  help .
I am  looking  forward  to  see  some  other  posts about  tachycardia .
Take  care
Vanda

[Lulu54]

Lisa,
unfortunately so many of these symptoms you will never know for sure.  Getting a doctor who specializes in one area to be open to ideas that problems are related to another area is a hard if not impossible task.  they tend to think of systems are being independent of each other - the central nervous system separate from the cardiac system from the digestive systems ... you get the idea.

My quest, as impossible as it may be, is to connect the dots from my heart attack caused by a spasm, to esophageal spasms and the ES's to my MS lesions.  I want it to make the whole picture!!

The folks above have it right that MS does not cause a fever.

MS does cause shooting pains, but they won't occur in both extremities at the same time (not in both legs, or both arms usually)

Stiff neck could be but usually not ...

I hope this helps,
Lulu

[doni54]

Hi Lisa,

Good to see you again, Lisa.  I will try to answer these questions as best I can.

As for the fever, I know this is not a symptom of MS.

Tachycardia, I'm not sure.  I do know that Lulu suspects that her heart attack was caused by spasms related to MS.  Maybe you could pm her and talk about this, or just go to her MedHelp page and read some of her posts on the subject.


Stiffneck, not sure about this either.  Could be from spastisity or muscle spasms, though.

Shooting pains in legs and arms.  MS suffers do deal with many types of pain.

I'm sorry others missed your original post on Nov 24th.  I will bump it back up so others can have the chance to answer some of your questions.

Take Care
doni
  

[risnerrose]

Although several on the forum, myself included, have had some of the issues you ask about - I suspect they could be symptoms for many disorders, or simply different things that happen to occuring at the same time.  That said:

(My gp mentioned MS almost three years ago, and I now wonder how many of my earlier health concerns were connected.)

Tachycardia:
I take Coreg for hypertension, and because it helps calm my tachycardia - both of which came to light 6 years ago.  I'm now dealing with "skipped" heartbeats, but the cardiologist said it would be quite rare for MS to cause rhythm problems; however, there are several people on this forum dealing with heart rhythm problems, so I still suspect a connection.

Stiff Neck:
About 8 years ago, I woke with a crick in my neck, and eventually (three years later)ended up having shoulder surgery.  I also wonder if the initial irritation of the shoulder was a result of spasticity.  Maybe . . . maybe not???

Shooting Pains:
Zaps, electrical pains, lightning bolts, bee stings, buzzing, tingling, etc. are very common among the forum members.  I highly recommend you take a look at the health pages (link is in upper right).

Fever:
Fever tends to aggrevate MS symptoms, but I am unaware of it being a symptom.  Others will have to chime in on this one.  

Hope some of this info is helpful,

Sherry