Max heart rate and stress test after ASD repair

[chslatrecia]

Hello and thanks for reading. A little background, I am a 38 y/o female who had an ASD repair almost a year ago. It went well, but there is still some mild-moderate mitral valve regurgitation. I am on Diovan to help my heart "HEAL" and for high blood pressure that returned 6 months after the ASD repair.

I am concerned about my heart rate during exercise. I can easily get my HR up to 200 with a VERY slow jog in about 2 minutes. I have a monitor so I try not exceed 205. It then takes about 2 hours to get my RH below 100 again after 30 min of exercise. I had a stress test, walking at a very casual pace and slight incline (I wouldn't even consider it exercise). They stopped the test at 7 min because I reached my max heart rate of 182 bpm and said the results were normal. So my question is, should I have a test done that more accurately mimics my excercising heart rate? Or if it is good at 182 it should also be good at 200 without causing any damage? Could the Diovan be a factor in my high heart rate?

I understand that some people just have a higher heart rate, how can I know if I am one of them?

[Brothabill]

well, I find it hard to belive a wellconditioned woman at your age reaches 205 in a "Couple of minutes".

But, well since you are nothing more than electrons on my screen, I cannot decide if you have faulty equipment, faulty mind or faulty faultyness of your heart.

But, if you do truly have a Honda engine, the simple treatment is a betablocker, its not rocketscience.
Get a prescription for it, see if it relieves your symptoms, if it doesnt, then throw it away.
Alot of equipment counts the QRS complex as a beat, and then as well counts a high T wave as a beat. Thereby doubling the rate, this happens as well on 20,000 dollar GE case 2000 machines.
It's just the way it 'understands' things. If you manually take it and its high, then you shouldve have it manually tested while doing a stress test.

Anyways, it sounds like you are a disease in need of a cure, meaning you need to find another disease besides your heart to ruminate on as you sound like you are fine. Stay away from cardiologists!

[chslatrecia]

Thank you for your comments.  I have checked my rate manually and with my blood pressure cuff; all three have been consitent.  I will reask the question of my cardiologist and continue a light work out routine.   Thanks again!

[Forum-M.D.-bkj]

chslatrecia,

I cant make specific exerecise recommendations. However, I generally tell my patients to keep their exercise limited by symptoms. In other words, pushing yourself to exaustion in a few minutes is not the way to go, rather exercising while still being able to carry on conversation for longer periods of time is the preferred route. If you are having very high heart rates at low levels of exercise, you could be having arrythmias or more commonly, your heart rate monitor is misreading. I would discuss this with your physician who interpreted your stress test in order to get specific exercise recommendations.

good luck