Frequent heart palpitations, kind of worried - Long QT Syndrome?

[Cyrus]

Hey everyone. I've had a resurgence of my health anxiety over the last two months or so, during which I began experiencing pretty frequent heart palpitations. Usually they are "ectopic beats" - they feel like a skip, and then a big THUD in my chest. These seem to happen more when I'm anxious or sleep deprived, and I can have anywhere from 1 to 30 of them an hour. Sometimes they will feel more like a brief spasm of my heart that only lasts a second or two. When I have lots of them, like I am today, my anxiety gets the best of me and I start worrying something is really wrong with me.

I had an echocardiogram about two weeks ago, which was absolutely fine. They said my valves are great and my heart's pumping is excellent, and there're no problems. However, I (very, very stupidly) remember reading on Google that something called Long QT Syndrome needs an EKG (electrocardiogram) to diagnose (AND it can cause sudden death...wonderful). I did have electrodes put on my chest during the echocardiogram that were hooked up to something - did I get an EKG while I had my Echo? Would that make sense? I'm just not sure that's what that was because when I got my echo results they didn't say anything about how the EKG looked (or maybe that just means it was fine?). If so, that would put my mind a lot more at rest. I also definitely got an EKG two years ago due to chest pain, which came out to be fine. But that was a while ago, and I'm not sure if something could've gone wrong since then.

I'm turning 20 and have no family history of sudden cardiac death or anything like that. My doctor and parents both think I am just being anxious again, which is understandable, given my history with anxiety. I know they're probably right...these palpitations are just so frequent and bothersome that I find myself worrying I have a very serious issue with my heart which could cause me to drop dead at any moment...it's very upsetting.

[bin tenn]

You're fine, IMO. I understand from personal experience how palpitations can be worrisome, but they usually aren't. Without any immediate family history, your age, and assuming few if any risk factors are present, I'd say you don't need to worry at all. If you want to know more about the results of the echo (and possibly EKG, if that's what they did) you can certainly call the office and ask.

[megan91]

I get heart palpitations all the time. I think a lot of mine are hormonal related, but I definitely get them from too much caffeine or when I'm really tired. I would make my husband get his stethoscope out and listen to them, that's how anxious I use to get haha. Of course when I was on a 24 hour monitor for them, I only had 1. Go figure. I find the more I focus on them, the worse they get. Palpitations are usually harmless, and that's what I try to tell myself when I get them. But the feeling is very unsettling.

[Cyrus]

Hey, thanks for the responses! I should mention my palpitations usually ease off with exercise, which I know is another giveaway that they aren't anything to be concerned about. I usually get them when I'm sitting or lying down (ESPECIALLY on my left side).

I feel like the anxious side of me is just looking for an obscure, deadly reason I'm having them at this point instead of accepting they're fueled mostly by stress. I'm sure most people don't even know what Long QT Syndrome is, and I probably shouldn't either, lol.

And yeah, I definitely agree that I get them more when I'm thinking about them. It's a nasty cycle.

[nomorepanic]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your issue.

This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums so other members with any experience with the issues can find them more easily.

Please also read this post:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=213239

[Cyrus]

After a bout of indigestion last night I've been getting a ton of them today. It's 11:30 PM here right now and I'm getting an ectopic beat every 1-2 minutes. Realistically, I know that having recently had an echocardiogram and EKG along with it (which, yes, was what that was, confirmed by my doc) during which I had several palpitations come back all clear, I have nothing to worry about, but damn! They're so uncomfortable when they're relentless like this. I guess part of me isn't fully accepting that these aren't going to hurt me (or, more honestly what I'm really nervous about - suffering sudden death!).

[Aaahhfreakout]

Long QT is something they likely would have seen on the ECG. If you Google image search for "long QT ECG" you will see it can be a quite obvious change to the right side, the "t" part. It's stretched way out. Also, common symptoms of it are fainting and seizures, particularly exercise related.

So it seems like something that would have been detected by now, and you're probably fine.