Strange pulse/vibration sensation in chest

[missyjill1171]

Hello, I had a baby almost 5 months ago now, after I had him I started noticing a strange sensation in my chest. While while lying on my left side I feel it especially if I lean over towards my stomach. I also feel it if I'm sitting up but leaning back on pillows, it is my pulse but it feels like a vibration feeling more on the right center of my chest. It's almost like my heart is touching my bones and causing my chest to vibrate in time with my heart. Would this be coming from my heart or an artery or something in my chest or lungs? There is no pain it's just kind of an uncomfortable sensation. It seems sometimes it feels stronger than others. Laying on my right or other positions, I don't feel it at all. I'm very concerned about this. I have had EKGs recently and all is normal there. I also had an echo not related to this problem and they found very mild right atrial enlargement. Maybe this is normal but I've never felt it before until now. Any input would be helpful, I'm a little concerned about PH because I've had a resolved PE in 2007 and also because I've read that with PH you can feel your pulse over your breastbone sometimes. I don't feel it all the time but only in certain positions like stated above. Thank you

[missyjill1171]

Actually Dr Rich,
I'm concerned about PH because I read somewhere that with pH you can sometimes feel
yiur pulse over your breastbone. I can but only in certain positions, should I be concerned?

[missyjill1171]

Thank you for your response. I have had several holter monitors and event recorders recently. I've had problems with tachycardia. I know I get pvc's and pac's but this is not like that. It isn't a skipped beat, this is the sensation of a regular pulse like my heart is vibrating my chest on that right center  side. Once again, this is my regular pulse. I'm not a thin person but my chest is on the thin side, maybe due to muscle loss or something could this just be normal for me? I don't understand why I never felt this before until after I had my son

[Jonathan D. Rich, MD]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The normal ECG and echo is extremely reassuring.  Having said that, it sounds to me like you may be having an occasional extra heart beat (totally normal to have some of these but some people notice them more than others).  I would suggest a 24-48 hour Holter monitor with a diary.  Essentially, this is a 1-2 day long ECG (you wear the leads on your chest) and any time you notice one of these strange sensations, you document when it happened and what you were doing in your diary.  They can then see if you are having extra beats and if you are, whether they correlate with your documentation.

Regarding PH, this sounds exceedingly unlikely.

Hope this helps and congrats on the new baby.

Best,

Dr. Rich