racing heart and palpitations

[wendy63]

I have been having palpitations for quite a number of years now. i have had tests done and they have come back ok apart from a recent echo which showed I had a PDA. I was seen by a consultant who said the PDA had no clinical significance and my palpitations were benign ectopics. I am now having periods were my heart has started to race, it has got up to 125 bpm approx. I also can feel when my heart is either skipping or adding a beat because it causes me to catch my breath. I do have SLE and in the past I have had two episodes of pericarditis with no effusion. I made a recovery quickly from both episodes. I do tend to get a dull almost cramp like pain in my chest that can last a few minutes or weeks at a time. it then goes away suddenly and then comes back. I can have periods were I do not have the pains for weeks at a time. I do feel the ectopics daily. Any help with the new symptom of my heart racing with be much appreciated as it has me very worried. Thank you.

[wendy63]

Thank you so much for your reply. I did have a 48 monitor on a few months back and it picked up the skipped/added beats but they said it was nothing to worry about as they were coming from the top chambers (Ithink !). they called them benign ectopics. I have been suffering from an awful burning in my tummy for the last few days and sometimes a sharp pain in my left side too. I am on warfarin and have been for a long time, the GP said the burning was nothing to do with the warfarin but didnt tell me what it was. He gave me some Domperidone and said that should settle it. Then last night out of the blue my heart just started racing away, which frightened me but it settled down but happened a nother twice afterwards. I feel silly going back to the docs as I have had numerous tests done but a[part from the PDA and benign ectopics everything seems normal. I just wish I knew what was causing this because it frightens me to death. Thank you again for your reply .

[ed34]

Perhaps they should get you to wear a 24hour holter monitor and look at the results. It could be so many things. Perhaps a complete blood check would be a good start. It could even be vasospasm, the symptoms sound very similar to what I had. Keep on at the Doctors, don't let them just keep telling you it's nothing because obviously your body is telling you different.