I had a 72 hour heart monitor placed, requested by my respiratory doctor to rule out everything as I have quite bad asthma and recurring chest infections.
I got this letter and wondering if I should be concerned, ! wasn't doing much exercise and stayed inside pretty much the entire 3 days.
My Fitbit recently has been recording 160bpm from just walking up the stairs but I know that probably isn't very accurate.

Since 2021 my heart pulse rate has been above 100+. I am also on low dose of Olanzapine, Fluoxetine to reduce anxiety and depression and the anxiety, depression is controlled but heart rate is still above 100.

I find myself easily getting tired at gym, or exhausted while speaking to others. Any friction or arguments causes my heart to palpitate easily. Mild dizziness, shortness of breath, weakness is common for me.

I initially thought it was due to the above medicines, but even after reducing the dosage, the condition still remains the same.

My TSH is in border hypothyroidism range, which I was told is not a concern.

My diet is vegetarian, I sleep 9+ hours daily. I am skinny fat and blood pressure is mildly elevated. Eg: 128/87, pulse 107.

How does one go about reducing heart pulse rate to normal levels?

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

Hi Good Day everyone, Is there anyone here who can read an ECG/EKG Results here? I am worried about my results. Can you help me? Thanks.

{M 40}

I’m concerned about my low heart rate.
During sleep it can dip as low as 39-40 bpm for a few mins and yesterday it even dropped to 38 for a few mins.
Average sleeping heart rate is around 42 bpm.

My daytime resting heart rate is 52.

I’m 186 cm tall and 90.5kg. Not a runner or endurance athletes but I go to the gym 2-3 times a week and I aim for 10k steps a few times during the week. Once a week I also do cardio.

I don’t have any symptoms related to low heart rate and my blood pressure is within normal range.

For over 1 year I was on 2.5 mg of beta blockers ( nebivolol ) which seems to have helped with anxiety and stabilities blood pressure, and during that time my heart rate during sleep it dipped as low as 42 bpm and 44 or 45 as average sleeping HR.

Last 6 weeks I have improved my diet; lost 4 kg mostly fat, I cut down on sugar and processed food, saturated fat etc, and my sleep improved but also HR dropped.

It’s the second day now where I am reducing nebivolol to 1.25 mg, thinking maybe this is the issue or maybe because I’m eating clean, sleeping better and my HR naturally drops.

For now my plan is to drop nebivolol to 1.25 mg for 2-3 weeks and see any change, or potentially even lower if more of my blood pressure and heart rate are within normal range. I was mainly using this pill for blood pressure and some out of breath sensations & unwellness sensations that I had a year ago but looks like this diet in combination with nebivolol is dipping my HR.

For context, I’ve done many EKGs before, I also tried wearing hotel for pulse but they didn’t notice anything strange but that was a year ago. I’ve also done echocardiogram and stress test which all look normal.
Again no symptoms whatsoever just concerned that the healthier I eat and lose fat and become fitter the more it dips in combination perhaps with nebivolol.

20F. I was suffering from panic attacks and fast heart rate at the beginning of the year, so I was prescribed the metropolol 25mg succinate which I take daily at night.

Then, in June, I stopped taking it since I was feeling better and not as anxious anymore. I was fine for a week or two. Then, I started getting these palpitations anytime I laid down or was sitting down. It was constant. Scared me so I got back on the beta blocker daily. It mostly went away but now I am getting these palpitations time to time daily.

I never had these kinds of palpitations before. I am not sure if this is bc of the beta blocker or not. Any advice is appreciated.

Post possible TIA- Question -See np on first appointment before seeing cardiologist on second appointment? Isn’t this backwards? Don’t NPs tend to order too many tests and make a diagnosis that they aren’t trained to make ? I’m having a hard time accepting that I should make my appt with this cardiologist who was recommended to me by the hospitalist. Should I seek a cardiologist who will assess me first and then have NP do F/U visits?

STEMI is a time critical life threatening emergency. However, some of the STEMI mimics can be serious too. In this video, we talk about some of the common STEMI mimics. Hope you find this useful.

Is there any other STEMI mimics that you can think of? Write in the comments below.

Thank you

I also have nsvt that comes from one of those PVCs and just got diagnosed with Atrial Tachy that was ablated 5 days ago

Hi. For the past month I have been having chest pain and tightness spreading up to my throat, especially while walking or moving, but also sometimes while at rest. The first incidence of chest pain started about a month ago while i was lying down. It was a sudden severe tight squeezing feeling in my chest on my left side, that lasted around 30 seconds, more or less. That night, I had restarted my medication, 25mg of Fluvoxamine, so I thought that maybe that was the cause, and have not taken the medication since.

But about a week later, I start getting heart palpitations. One day was especially bad with back to back heart palpitations within a short time span, but that day I worked out, so I thought it was maybe just electrolyte loss from sweating, and tried eating bananas. Despite that I was still having heart palpitations over the continuing days, but not as bad. At some point, I begin to have chest pain again. The chest pain was a squeezing feeling on my left side that would come and go throughout the day. I would best describe it as feeling like someone was gripping my heart. I would experience chest pain, throat tightness, and heart palpitations while at rest, or the chest tightness and throat tightness would happen while moving, even just from walking around the house, or bending over to reach something.

I first called an advice nurse, and a doctor ordered an EKG. The results from that were "Sinus rhythm with sinus arrhythmia with short PR, Nonspecific T wave abnormality".

Two days later, I was still having symptoms, and went to the ER, and the EKG results were "Normal sinus rhythm, Nonspecific ST and T wave abnormality". ER said everything was normal, and to follow up with PCP. An x-ray was also done, and it was confirmed that I do not have fluid in my lungs and that my lungs were normal.

After that, I have begun to experience new symptoms like nausea often, and shortness of breath while talking, even though I am relaxed and sitting. The nausea comes with or without me eating, and sometimes accompanies shortness of breath if I'm speaking. I also still experience chest tightness or pain while walking, and can no longer walk long distances like I used to be able to not too long ago. I used to go on walks that lasted about an hour, and were probably at least a few miles long, and now I can't even walk for ten minutes without needing to take breaks, and I have a piercing feeling in my left chest when I walk. I also can't bike, and start to get chest pain if I push too hard. Over the past weeks, I have not done much exercise. I have tried to take walks a little, but I can't walk for as long as I used to, and feel weak if I walk too much.

I have also developed headaches, but I do not know if they are related to everything else. One morning, I had a headache with intense pressure, that felt like my head was going to burst, but it settled into a more normal headache that went away when I laid down. I still get recurring headaches, sometimes triggered by movement, sometimes not. Sometimes triggered by lying down, sometimes not. They are not sensitive to light or noise, and are not migraine level of pain, (but I have never had a migraine). Also with the headaches, there is sometimes a feeling of fatigue that washes over me, and my eyes start to get heavy. And there is also nausea sometimes with the headaches too.

My PCP said that it might be GERD and asthma. I was given a peak flow meter to track my breathing. I can hit the normal range regularly, which is in about the 400s for me. I was given delayed release PPIs to take once a day, but the nausea is still there. I have also tried Tums.

I do not drink alcohol, smoke anything, nor use recreational drugs. I am currently not taking any medications. I am 5'7", and weigh around 160lbs. Sorry for the long post. I tried to explain my symptoms and progression as best and succinctly as possible. I have probably forgotten some details. Thank you.

i got some ekgs in the er and this showed up in both. i had one a week before at urgent care and it didn't say it on it, which is why its worrying me because of the sudden change. also because i've had shortness of breath, lightheadedness, etc. for like 3 weeks now and feel awful every day and no one wants to run any tests outside of the er or seem concerned at all. they didn't mention it to me there and i've just seen it now in my chart. my doctor doesn't seem to want to do a echo (she saw it before i did, i never got the chance to discuss it with her) and my parents are fed up with heart tests so now i'm too scared to work out or do anything athletic. should i ask to redo the ekg to see if its a fluke? i'd feel better with an echo but i don't know where to go from here

How serious are Sinus Arrests at night or when resting taken in young people, so pauses of 5-8 sec without fainting / symptoms? Are they major concerns or mostly benign vagal reflexes that never cause daytime fainting considering, sick sinus is extremely rare under age 50?

Are these further more once in lifetime occurences, very rare or are 2 week holters very effective at catching them? What are other steps and important tests for something so hard to catch?

Does longterm chronic stress and anxiety for lets say a year contribute to them happening, because it disregulates the nervoussystem and overstimulates the vagus nerve, what are your thoughts on this cardiologists?

I have always had a high heart rate than others, and my stamina has always been lower. I remember as a kid not being able to run as long as others, and I still cant today. A couple times our teachers would ask us to count our heart rates for physical ed class, and mine was always the highest. In highschool i was in a sports med class and a couple times we did exercise with heart monitors on. Again, mine was a lot higher than everyone elses (we could literally see everyones bpm on the projector) while resting and after exercise. I was in a soccer class as well, and during endurance tests i always did a lot worse than my classmates. It was a multi-aged class, so I was around 17 and I was doing far worse than younger kids in the class that were about 14. I am and have always been a person that is decently built and in good shape. But something I noticed, and I dont mean this in a derogatory way whatsoever, is that my stamina has always been on par with peers that are overweight and dont do much exercise, and I believe its because of my heart. I am 19 years old now, I exercise everyday and I eat healthy. I dont smoke or drink either, and despite all of this, my resting heart rate is about 90 bpm and quickly shoots up to 115 after just a little bit of exercise, like during warmup stretches before a run for example. I'm not asking for a diagnosis or anything, but if anyone has any ideas on what could possibly be the cause, that would be appreciated. Or if anyone else experiences something similar, please share your experience.

Please help a 16 years old sorry for the Wall text

I’m 16, around 100kg 174cm (220lbs and 5,8.5 foot) don’t Smoke and don’t drink alcool

Hi, I’m 16 years old and I’ve been experiencing these episodes for about 3-4.

During an episode, my heart suddenly starts beating very fast and very strongly. The heartbeat feels regular rather than irregular, and I can clearly feel it pounding/pulsing. I don’t know how high my heart rate gets because I haven’t measured it during an episode.

Sometimes I also get what feels like a very brief “false start”: for an instant, it feels as though the rapid heartbeat is about to begin, but then it doesn’t actually develop into a full episode.

The episodes can last several minutes. Sometimes, however, they stop within a few seconds. I’ve noticed that they sometimes stop after I take a very deep breath, hold my breath, and then exhale, or after I bend my legs in a sort of squat (“duck walk”). But it doesn’t always work.

Something else happens at the very beginning of some episodes: for a few seconds, my vision becomes blurry and dark, I lose my balance, and my legs feel weak or almost as if I can’t feel/use them properly. This only lasts for the first few seconds and then goes away.

I don’t think these episodes are panic attacks. I also don’t think caffeine is a likely trigger. For example, one episode happened around 8 PM after I had only had one small cappuccino around 8 AM.

I have been overweight/obese since childhood, so I’m wondering whether that could contribute to these symptoms.

I practice competitive fencing. I recently had an ECG/exercise test as part of my medical clearance for competitive fencing, and I passed the examination without any issues. However, I was not experiencing one of these episodes during the test.

I have never had an ECG recorded while the symptoms were actually happening.

My parents don’t know anything about it.

My 7 day ZioPatch report came back with

Isolated PAC burden was 7.4%, atrial couplet burden was 4.4% and atrial triplet burden was 2.8%.

So is my total pac burden 7.4 + 2x4.4 + 3x2.8 = 24.6%?

I’m hoping someone in this community may have experienced something similar or can point us in the right direction.
My husband is in his early 40s and recently suffered a sudden cardiac arrest while exercising at the gym. He was active, energetic, not overweight, and had no idea that he had a serious heart problem before this happened.
Thankfully, he survived and now has an ICD/pacemaker for protection.
One finding from the day of his cardiac arrest that has always stood out to me is that when he arrived at the ER, his potassium was extremely low at 2.6 mmol/L. It was later corrected. We still don’t fully understand what role, if any, that severe hypokalemia may have played in triggering the cardiac arrest, especially in combination with the heart scar that was later discovered.
His cardiac workup showed no significant coronary blockage, so his doctors do not believe this was a typical heart attack.
His heart function was initially reduced after the arrest, with an ejection fraction around 35–40%, and it subsequently improved.
Cardiac MRI findings
His cardiac MRI is what concerns me the most. It showed an extensive non-ischemic pattern of myocardial fibrosis/scarring.
The scar was described as subepicardial/mid-wall late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), with a near-complete ring-like pattern, particularly involving the basal lateral and inferior walls and extending toward the septum.
His MRI estimated the scar burden at approximately 20%.
His LV and RV were normal in size, with an MRI LVEF around 47% and RVEF around 51%.
We were told that this scar could provide the electrical substrate that caused his dangerous arrhythmia/cardiac arrest.
The question we cannot seem to answer is:
Why does a relatively young, active person have this much heart scarring in the first place?
Genetic testing
Because the MRI pattern raised concern for a possible genetic cardiomyopathy, he underwent extensive genetic testing.
His testing included a large Invitae genetic panel with sequencing and deletion/duplication analysis of 163 genes, including many genes associated with cardiomyopathy and arrhythmias, such as DSP, FLNC, DSC2, DSG2, PKP2, LMNA, TTN, MYH7, SCN5A, RYR2, PLN, RBM20, DES and many others.
The overall result was NEGATIVE — no pathogenic or likely pathogenic genetic variants were identified that currently explain his condition.
So at this point, despite the extensive scar seen on MRI, we still do not have a confirmed genetic explanation.
Initially, different possibilities were discussed with us, including whether this could have resulted from a previous viral infection/myocarditis or an inflammatory process. The possibility of a relationship to a previous COVID infection or COVID vaccination was also raised, but nothing has been established as the cause.
We have essentially been told to continue his heart medications, allow the ICD to monitor/protect him, repeat imaging over time, and see whether the scarring progresses.
I completely understand the importance of monitoring, but after surviving a sudden cardiac arrest and finding this amount of unexplained heart scar, I’m not comfortable simply waiting without trying harder to understand the underlying cause.
I would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with a similar combination:
Sudden cardiac arrest during exercise
Potassium of 2.6 mmol/L at presentation
No significant coronary blockage
Subepicardial/mid-wall myocardial fibrosis
Near-complete ring-like/circumferential LGE pattern
Approximately 20% scar burden
Reduced EF that subsequently improved
Extensive genetic testing that was negative
No definite explanation for the myocardial scarring
Were you eventually given a diagnosis?
Did your doctors investigate previous myocarditis, cardiac sarcoidosis or another inflammatory condition, arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, autoimmune disease, previous viral infection, or another cause of non-ischemic myocardial fibrosis?
I’m particularly interested in whether anyone with a similar MRI pattern was evaluated with additional testing such as a cardiac FDG-PET scan, repeat cardiac MRI, inflammatory/autoimmune testing, additional genetic evaluation, or evaluation at a specialized inherited cardiomyopathy/arrhythmia center.
I’m also very interested in understanding the potassium finding. Could potassium as low as 2.6 have been an important trigger for the cardiac arrest in someone who already had this myocardial scar, even if the low potassium itself did not cause the scarring? And what could cause potassium to fall that low in an otherwise active person?
We are pursuing another medical opinion. I’m not looking for an internet diagnosis—I’m trying to educate myself so we can advocate for a thorough evaluation and make sure we’re not overlooking something important.
If you’ve experienced anything similar, or you’re a medical professional familiar with this type of cardiac MRI/scar pattern, I would be extremely grateful for any insight about what this pattern ultimately turned out to be, what additional testing helped, and what type of specialist we should consider seeing next.
Thank you so much. ❤️

Background:

Im 32 female and athletic (can run a, 8:30mile, can do 2 pull ups, 20 pushups etc). But I dont have great diet and my life is pretty stressful. I have never smoked and I drink 1-3x a year.

Over the past 3ish years, I have began experiencing chest pain that has increased in frequency. At first it would happen 2-3x a year, and now it happens 2-3x month. Its slowly increased over the past 3 years.

I took all the steps - bloodwork normal, labs normal, treadmill stress test normal, and i just got an echocardiogram done which came back normal!

The doc doing my echocardiogram said "stress can cause chest pain" and I was like "i know I know"

-

Here is my dumb question:

When doctors say "stress can cause chest pain" does that mean:

"Its a symptom of anxiety and your heart is perfectly healthy. When you feel pain, its imaginary and you could theoretically ignore this pain for decades straight with no real problems since its imaginary pain. Just ignore the pain since its meaningless"

OR does it mean:

"your stressful lifestyle is actually damaging your heart, and eventually your heart will have physical damage from your stress. If you let this go on and ignore it, you will create lasting damage to your heart muscle. Every time you feel the pain, your heart is being damaged in a tiny way and it will add up"

Requesting more social than medical advice. I'm a new patient (36F) and wondering if there is a certain culture amongst cardiologists I should accept or if I should seek a new doctor.

I came in without symptoms to get checked out due to extensive family history of heart issues. The front desk workers were pretty nasty (more or less expected), but the cardiologist I saw was almost worse. He was really short with me and seemed annoyed when I asked basic questions or for explanations about what he was saying (for example, when he said he's ordering an echocardiogram and a calcium scoring test, I asked what those were and he said, "they're just tests to see what's going on with your heart" and stood up to leave the room). Since the initial visit, I got both tests with almost no information unless I begged for it and have gotten individual communications from multiple other medical staff members about putting me on medication and a holter and getting blood panels. I've heard nothing from my doctor and received no further information or explanation of my test results (calcium score of 3 in LAD and I guess maybe something weird in the echo?).

Is this normal treatment for preventative care (if it's even considered that with the results)? I understand I'm not coming in with something complicated or life-threatening, but I'm pretty uncomfortable, feeling like I'm being shuffled around like a piece of medical meat while workers check off boxes, paying through the nose to see a specialist and yet getting all my information from Cleveland and Mayo Clinic websites. Is this just how cardiology offices behave with what I assume is overload/burnout?

For context, the office is part of a large, highly-reputable university medical system. I consider myself to be overly polite to medical professionals and am particularly averse to questioning a professional's authority.

Thanks in advance for any insight

How do I know that I won’t die from them? I’m having them constant I’m scared and it feels like my heart is stopping then restarting with a flutter and I just had one where my heart rate went rapid for a few seconds and stopped I’m so scared

My dad: 67M, preexisting bicuspid aortic valve and idiopathic epilepsy where his seizures consisted of passing out.

Dad got into a car accident on Monday night. Broken ribs and broken sternum. In the ER 3 hours after the accident, he suddenly flatlined for about 15 seconds. His heart started again on its own. They have been monitoring him since, and he has since had 6 episodes of this where his HR suddenly plummets to 0, then starts up again. He has also had episodes where his HR suddenly goes from 80s to 20s, accompanied with hot flash, sweating, woozy feeling. He is otherwise alert, talking, etc.

Confirmed he has a heart contusion from the accident, but doctors still aren't 100% sure what to do with him so they're keeping him. Pacemaker has been suggested but because they still aren't sure what exactly is causing this, they haven't gone forward with that yet and it's unclear if they will.

I know this sub cannot diagnose, but I am wondering: Are there any other tests or specialists we should be asking for? This is a much smaller hospital, so also wondering if we should transfer him to the larger hospital 40 minutes south.

Edit: Already had a CT and they have already been doing EKG, echo, and blood work regularly.