My son's heart

[dad112]

My son is 15 almost 16 he is normal for his body weight for his size ( 6-2 /210lbs). Today he was complaining of his chest and heart beating very hard. No sharp pains. He says it has happened before and that it goes away after a couple of days. I took him to the pharmacy to check his blood pressure he was 112 over 73 with a 108 heart rate. He had no activities except riding on the bus for an hour prior. My concerns are he complains of a dull pain in his neck and fatique, also you can see how hard his chest is pounding. When he was born ( not premature either) the first few days his heart had a very high heart rate and we were told that the muscle in his heart was still forming and that a part of it needed to deteriorate. After day three he was fine and they kept him for a total of seven days. Not sure what to do?

[Jeffrey R Boris, M.D.]

Dear Dad,

It sounds as if your son has several different symptoms that may be related, or they may not.  Without getting more of a history and examining him, I can’t say for sure.  However, I think that it would be a good idea to start with your primary care provider reviewing the history and examination, and maybe considering an ECG.  The two most common reasons that we see for this complaint are either mild dehydration or an arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm).  While awaiting his initial evaluation, I would make sure that he is adequately hydrated, with four 8-12 ounce glasses of fluid each day plus a salty snack.  Also, he should not skip meals and should limit or eliminate caffeine.  If this does not improve his symptoms, he may need to be further evaluated for an arrhythmia.

The cardiac history at birth that you describe is not clear to me.  I don’t know if he had an arrhythmia at that time.  I also don’t know what you mean by the muscle still forming and part of it needing to deteriorate.  The heart is typically formed at birth, though there is a hole that all babies have that needs to close (patent foramen ovale, or PFO) and an extra blood vessel that needs to close (patent ductus arteriosus, or PDA).

[Heartgrl]

Im not a doctor.  The best thing to do is to play it safe and go  get him checkedby a apediatric cardiologist. Get a full work-up. Listen to him, his symptoms. Hope everything turns out alright!