Facebook Pixel

Comment Reply

Expert

Dear Anon,

Sorry you are not feeling well. Although palpitations can be benign in many patients, it is very critical to make sure that there is not a more serious problem going on. We get concerned about palpitations when the heart beats very fast (>100), the episodes last for more than a few seconds or are associated with other symptoms especially light headness/passing out and chest discomfort. These can indicate a serious arrythmis such as atrial fibrillation, other types of SVT ("supraventricular tachycardia") or even potentially life-threatening "ventricular" arrythmias.

You describes several things which make it CRITICAL that you get a proper evaluation for your palpitations. You should see a heart specialist. The challenge in evaluating palpitations is that the symptoms can be intermittent and it can be difficult to catch them and identify whether they are associated with an abnormal rhythm. A traditional test is a Holter monitor which usually records your heart rhythm for 48-72 hours. This may not be long enough if the symptoms are erratic. We have been using a system called a "30-day event monitor". It is a pretty neat system that the patient wears for a full month and transmitts literally every heart beat during that time through a special smartphone. If the patient developes symptoms, she can enter it on the smartphone and it sends that information as well. If there is a serious arrythmia we are notified right away, otherwise we get weekly and a monthly report.

Please make sure you get this evaluated. Hopefully it will turn out to be nothing serious but you need to make sure.

Dr. Aklog

October 7, 2009 - 12:20pm

Reply

Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
By submitting this form, you agree to EmpowHER's terms of service and privacy policy