Bicuspid aortic valve... how know heart palp harmless?

[animalrealm]

I was diagnoses about a year ago with a bicuspid aortic valve with mild stenosis. I am 28 years old and male.

I went in because I have a heart palpitation which feels like a heart jump where I am sitting still and all the sudden I jump up and freak out for a split second as I feel my heart jump.

They did an ultrasound, and then a couple EKG tests, then a 24 hour heart monitor, and a treadmill test. They said stenosis was mild, and the irregular beats didn't show up while excercising so they didn't think it was anything to worry about.

However, I'm worried about my heart jumps a bit as I haven't gotten much info from them on why I have them other than they could give me some beta blockers to stop it.

I have 2 problems:
A) My jumps usually happen when sitting still and breathing shallow. I have asthma and wasn't taking anything a year ago. I started taking singulair and breathing better and they seem to happen less than they were, but not sure if related. I had one episode where I was very still and breathing almost not at all, and my heart pumped like 8 times in a couple seconds. Since I started taking medicine that hasn't happened again but I still get single jumps every so often.

B) My heart beats hard when nervous and I feel a little light-headed. For example we were on the road today and I had to slam on my brakes because the car in front of us stopped. For a few seconds I could really feel my heart thumping in my chest and I felt a little light-headed. Nothing major, I kept on driving, but ya know.

I also suffered from panic attacks where I would get dizzy and so forth in my late teens. Once I realized what they were though I never really had that issue again, but I still get paranoid about my heart and stuff always thinking something is wrong with it, so that probably doesn't help the situation.

So how do I know what causes my heart palpitations and that they're harmless? My doctors said they weren't bad, but I don't know. It scares me. =(

[SooZeeATL]

I too was born with a bicuspid aortic valve and have had palpitations my whole life. I ignored the palpitations and to be honest, they never slowed me down. They could keep me up at night, but I pretty much ignored them. Then two years ago, I started having chest pain, trouble breathing, and blacking out while exercising. That was when I found out that I had developed afib and they also diagnosed the bicuspid aortic valve plus MVP at that time.

Up until the time I developed afib, I didn't have a single problem doing anything (scuba diving, water skiing, cycling, racing, running, tennis, etc.) and the doctor said that there are lots of people with bicuspid aortic valves that live their whole lives and never know they have it and it doesn't affect them in any way.

I'm almost twice your age and the valve issue and palpitations didn't slow me down or hurt me. Sometimes less information is better because you can't worry about what you don't know. If you doctor has given you the all clear then try to shake the fear and get out there and enjoy yourself! 28 is a great age!

[ihateheartpalpitations]

I love reading what you posted here! You give me hope! I’m 39 years old female. I just found out I was born with BAV with very mild stenosis. I’ve had benign PVC and PAC palpitations. I’ve had numerous EKGs, echocardiogram, treadmill stress test (perfect ejection fraction), and holter monitors. It’s hard to live with these annoying palpitations! Oh, I was born with asthma too, but it never bothers me at all. Neither my congenital BAV. Just the PVC+PAC palps that driven me so mad!

[Jerry_NJ]

Your best advice on how your heart is, is your doctor.  I can't try to second-guess that advice.

It is clear that adrenaline highs/jumps will cause an acceleration of the heart...it the fight/flight nature of our bodies, getting ready to give us maximum physical/mental power.  So the hard brake episode causing a heart rate increase/jump isn't surprising to me.

I think the best advice is to try to work with/trust your doctor and still keep a record of what's going on so that you clearly recognize anything that may indicate your condition is worse.  This may be hard to do, thinking about the heart too much can be problematic.  For example, I'm taking a medication to slow down my AFib driven heart rate, so I often wear a heart rate monitor... I think I can do that, and check often, and not cause my HR to increase.  I think this may not work for some people, just knowing the HR may cause it to increase out of anxiety or panic reactions.

What you've told us sounds to me like you're on the path to recovery/control.