Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia

[Buffalo12]

I have a friend who is a firefighter and he has currently been dx with Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia.
He is out on W/C and they have denied the claim of this dx because it is not a Cardiac Condition.
My question is, is Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia a Cardiac Condition???

[Douglas Bogart, MD]

There are many reasons for sinus tachycardia that need to be excluded and in general sinus tachycardia is secondary to some other problem.  However if the secondary causes have bee ruled out--rarely people can have autonomic dysfunction that manifests as sinus tachycardia.  Clearly the firefighter need further evaluation.

[kitcurious]

I believe the message being sent to the heart to beat faster, without a real reason to do so, is coming from the autonomic nervous system. His heart itself is probably healthy.
There are often other symptoms associated with dysautonomia and the sinus tachycardia is sometimes just one of them.
The Doc on the rhythm forum said around 80% of people with IST are nurses curiously enough. Since a firefighter deals constantly with EMS work it  makes you wonder .  Perhaps people who regularly experience stimulation of adrenaline in their work are more prone to get a breakdown of the system, or  to have a propensity to such a glitch in their system triggered?
Just a thought.

[mattk688]

A related discussion, I was recently diagnosed with IST was started.