Holter Monitor results

[daisy1060]

Will you help me with my results please?  I do not understand what this means.  I am scared and you help is greatly appreciated.

I am a 24 year old female. Healthy and very active.  Went to the Dr. because I was feeling skipped beats.  I wore a holter monitor for 24 hours.  Here are the results.

Dominant mechanism on this recording is sinus rhythm. Occasional premature ventricular contractions.  There is marked motion artifact and movement artifact on this recording. There are occasional premature atrial contractions.  There is a single episode of what appears to be a nonsustained atrial tachycardia with a rate of about 100 beats per minute  which was somewhat irregular lasting less than 2 seconds.  it spontaneously terminated to a regular sinus rhythm.  There is a second episode of tachycardia with a rate of 165 to 170 bpm where there is excessive motion artifact.  Atrial activity is not clear.  In that instant, I cannot exclude atrial fibrillation although on limited data I do suspect there may be a definitive P wave morphology.

Summary:  predominant rhythm is sinus with occasional eotopic events.  cannot exclude a brief episode of paroxysmal fibrillation.  No patient diryr submitted with this recording.

How serious is this.  I am sooo scared.  I have to wait 1 month for appointment.  What kind of tests will the cardiologist do?  Thank ytou for all of you answers and help.

[daisy1060]

Thank you , Thank you!!!! My appointment was moved up.  Went yesterday.  Exactly what you said.  Dr. Said afib was motion and not actual afib.  Did another EKG.  All normal.  Did echo and thyroid test.  He Thinks the problem may be thyroid.   Thak you so much for your quick response and sharing your knowledge.  Your help and comfort is gratly appreicated.

[CCFHeartMD16]

The Holter was the test. I don't think more testing to rule out a fib is necessary. If your issues continue much longer, then he could do another Holter or he could do a longer monitor such as an event monitor which can be up to 30 days of monitoring.

[daisy1060]

Big sigh of relief! Thank you so much for the quick response.  What tests do you think he will do to rule out Afib?

[CCFHeartMD16]

Not serious.

Let's break this down by piece...

sinus rhythm - normal heart rhythm, that is what you have most of the time.

Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) - a beat that comes earlier than expected, and the electrical signal comes from the bottom chamber (ventricle) rather than the top chamber (atria). In isolation, having them occasionally may cause the sensation of a missed beat, or an occasional palpitation, but is of little long-term concern.

Premature atrial contractions (PACs) - a beat that comes earlier than expected from the top chamber. Not a concern, has no long-term concern, except if they happened a ton someone could feel palpitations occasionally, but nothing is done to treat this.

Nonsustained atrial tachycardia - a faster heart rate that came without stimulation (not exercising) that resolved within 2 seconds. For just 2 seconds is of no concern.

The part about atrial fibrillation seems that the interpreting physician thinks it really is not atrial fibrillation because there is artifact (the tracing of the monitor is all over the place due to motion or leads slightly coming off your body at the time).

Basically the things they did see where of low clinical long-term importance and can be monitored. At most they will give occasional palpitations. The atrial fibrillation would be something to keep an eye out for, but again the doc says he suspects he sees a P wave (atrial fibrillation does not have a P wave), and his difficulty saying for sure is due to the artifact from motion).