Palpatitaions question about ECG

[Jj8]

Hi Everyone

I'm worrying again about these flipping palps :( Please can anyone answer my question.... Do your palps have to be caught on an ECG for anything sinister to be ruled out? I have about 3-4 palps per month so would be near enough impossible to catch these at the time as they happen so quick, but they still scare me :( I thought I had gotten a handle on this now after last month as the doctor gave me some blood tests which came back normal and I have had 3 ECG's which were normal. I've done nothing but google, its the first thing I think about when I wake up, the doctors are getting sick of me :( x

[PokerFace]

If your doc is happy with your heart health you should be too! If he doesn't think it's necessary to have the palps picked up on an ECG is isn't. ECGs are accurate and assess your heart health so if you've had 3 come back fine your heart is fine.

I suffer with palpitations too, I've been known to get quite a few a day when my anxiety is at it's worst and I know how scary they are but they are completely harmless.

It might be an idea to start treating your anxiety problem rather than a heart problem as googling and concentrating on your heart leads to nothing but badness, trust me, I've been there myself, still am there sometimes! There's lots of help you can get for your anxiety, self help books, self help courses, meds (if it's a route you want to go down, they're not for everyone), you can even ask your doctor if he could refer you for CBT counselling. It can get better if you go about it the right way. You might just find when your anxiety about your heart decreases so do the palpitations. xx

[Jj8]

Hi Pokerface

Thank you for your reply.

I have been to counseling which has stopped my panic
attacks which is good and my anxiety was ok I am alot calmer now but when ever I get a palp it makes me worry as I have heard that they need to be caught on tape and that hasn’t happened, so then I panic that it's something serious that hasn’t been picked up L So I don’t know what to do, I just want to not care and not worry about it but i'm finding it hard… xx

[PokerFace]

I heard they need to be caught on tape too, but I've also heard they haven't so.. that one confuses me too! Mine have never been caught though and my doctor seems quite happy with my heart health.

There's a retired doctor who sometimes comes on here called RLR, he has his own website about heart palpitations and he tries to answer sufferers questions the best he can over the internet.

I found he explained palps to me A LOT better than my own doctor so it might be worth just submitting your concern to him and he might reply, there's experienced members on there too that could help you with your question better than I can. Take care xx

http://palps.chemicalforums.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl

[ronski]

Palpitations that you are talking about are caused by the vagus nerve not the heart itself, the unpleasant feelings are aberrant stimulus caused mostly by the digestive system that just allows the firing of the vagus nerve which in your case causes palpitations.
The vagus nerve is part of the autonomic nervous system and is controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system so yes it's your anxiety that is causing these palps but don't forget that everybody anxious or not will get them. If your nervous system is more sensitive then you will feel more than a person who has a normal nervous system if that makes sense. The best thing is pay them no heed and they will go, remember the old adage What we resist PERSISTS.

[Jj8]

Hello
I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to reply to me. I keep reading your replies over and over to try and ease my mind. Thank you for that link pokerface. I have been on the chemical forums before and RLR says that they don't need to be picked up on an ECG but other doctors say that they do so that's what makes me panic :( I have left a message on the chemical forums for RLR but had no reply yet, just want to get this out of my mind and look forward to the easter holidays but I am finding it hard at the moment, I keep thinking that the next palp will be the last one and I keep feeling emotional and thinking about leaving my lovely partner and family behind xx

[ronski]

Hi I think RLR means that they are of no importance so they don't need to be picked up on an ECG. I believe that palpitations are only harmful when you have know heart disease and usual you would shows signs of heart failure for doctors to worry that these palpitations would cause your demise.
Honestly I would not give them another moments thought as your doctors have done the tests and were alright. The evidence that these palpitation are innocent far outweigh any evidence that they are harmful so please put things into context and just enjoy your life.

[Dreamer029]

So there are many types of "palpitations" Some people use that to describe their heart starts skipping beats, others to say their heart races.

A likely cause of palpitations is a PVC. Premature Ventricular Contraction. Without other types of health issues, and coming only occasionally, these are harmless. Likely the cause of these is due to increased caffeine intake. Watch how much soda/coffee you drink around the times this happens.

It's unlikely that you have a valvular disease or other heart defect due to the minimal amt of times you get this. If you get increasing episodes they can try and put you on a Holter monitor for 24 hours which will capture any episodes on an EKG. (It's a device you walk around with) That will give them more information about what is occuring during the palpitation.


I do practice emergency medicine as a mid-level practitioner in the US, and have seen a lot of cases like yours. There can be a lot of causes, almost always benign, but close follow up with your Doctor is recommended. Looks like he/she is being diligent about it.

[Serb]

That's a good post above, if your ECG was clean and your not fainting with your palps you don't have much to worry about. Holter monitor is good to rule out if they ate increasing.

[ronski]

I think there is a lot of confusion on this thread and quite understandably. Are we talking about atrial and ventricular ectopics or dysarrythymias.
In lay mans terms atria and ventricular ectopics are mostly innocent except in some forms of heart disease. Dysarrhymias also known as arrythmias always need investigating by a medical practioner. Examples of dysarrythymias are Atrial Fibrillation, SVT, heart block etc. Most people with anxiety get a sinus tachycardia which is a normal pqrst complex but the rate is faster than a 100 beats a minute, in itself again nothing to worry about as when the anxiety is under control it will drop to normal limits.
I think a lot of us including me worry about heart issues and that probably is the root cause of our anxiety problems. Understandable but probably stupid ha ha