supraventricular tachycardia

[terry suttles]

My nieghbos daughter is in the hospital in San Jose CA and they are telling her she may have supraventricular tachycardia. She has all the classic signs of POTS. Does anone else have this diagnosis with POTS

[JenniferInOhio]

Yes, I was first diagnosed with SVT's (PAC's and PVC's too) and then POTS. I am on a low dose beta blocker now and it has decreased the SVT's dramatically.

[Wufflebear]

My husband has supraventricular tachycaria and I have Pots/ncs...and they are kind of different from what I can gather. My husbands chest pains are squeezing and mine are pinchy or like a bad bruise. He gets vertigo where the room actually spins, My dizziness is like after you take too much benydryl and you feel like your moving even when you are not... But the room is not moving. His heart problem, I beleive, reads abnormal on an EKG, mine does not. His will spead up and skip and even stop for seconds at a time, mine just speeds up...but it is a regular (although fast) rhythem. He can handle heat after he is used to it, I can't. He does not have to constantly drink and urinate...I do. I can see how someone might misdiagnose if tests were not run, but I am not an expert in any way. Hope this helps.

[Ernie]

Hi,

They gave me that diagosis in December but I am not sure that they diagosed correctly.

[mom4cem]

Hi,

From what I understand it really depends on them catching the rhythm when it happens for the best diagnosis or if there really is a telltale sign on the ekg. My cardio told me he thought I had an episode of PAT, paroxsymal atrial tachycardia, but another said the strip did not look like it.

I take a beta blocker and it helps.

If it is something that happens frequently they may suggest an ep study to see if they can induce the rhythm.

I also think there is the possibility she has both.

[Jacquie802]

Hi, I suffer from SVT and POTS/NCS. I am on a Beta Blocker for the SVT. It does help, I no longer have to go to the ER when I suffer from the episodes. I did have 2 Ablations, which got rid of a few of the problem pathways.

Jacquie

[MightyMouse]

I have SVT on every ecg they've ever done one me...and I have POTS & NCS. Keep in mind, though, that SVT alone is not diagnostic for POTS or NCS. See the primary DINET site for how this stuff is diagnosed. http://www.dinet.org

Nina

[morgan617]

SVT just means tachycardia that originates above the ventricles, so it can cover any number of atrial arrythmias. PAT is a prime example. IST can be a form of SVT, although you generally think of svt as being very very fast. However, svt is supra(above) ventricular(the ventricles)tachycardia, fast heart rate.

It's kind of like the doctors picking pots over Oi. They say it's the same thing, they just like the name better. morgan p.s. no matter what's it's called, it is not fun.

[Guest CyberPixie]

My son has SVT and he looks like he's got some symptoms of POTS. When he was dx with SVT the specialist asked if I had it becauase it tends to run in the family. At the time as far as I was aware I didnt have it (though not sure about now). Alos I'm sure I read on here someone who was misdiagnosed with SVT when it was POTS.

[momdi]

I think that misdiagnosis might have been my son, but looking back, I wonder if the SVT was really part of his POTS. Maybe it wasn't a misdiagnosis, but an incomplete diagnosis. His SVT was diagnosed by a cardiologist after wearing a holter monitor when he was 8 years old. The SVT rate was well over 200 for 15 to 20 minutes. The cardiologist (it was 1993 - no one seemed to know about POTS then) treated it with a beta blocker, Tenormin, and all was well until he outgrew the Tenormin dose a couple years later. Then his episodes returned.

The issue with diagnosing SVT is that you usually need to wear a 24 hour (or longer) monitor to detect an episode, as they typically start and stop rather suddently. As mom4cem said, it's a matter of *catching* an episode. IMO, Nina's experience of SVT showing up on every ECG is not typical. Nina - I can't imagine having to struggle with ongoing SVT on top of everything else.

If you put all POTS people on holter monitors, how many would have some sort of SVT? The high catecholamines that some POTS patients have could also cause SVTs. SVT is just one type of arrhythmia, as Morgan very nicely explained - maybe something else is causing it, maybe they'll never find what's causing it, but maybe POTS is causing it.

My point is that SVT may or may not be associated with POTS, although as a nurse, it seems to me that the symptoms that you have with *just* SVT would occur only during or immediately after the SVT episode. OTOH, POTS seems to affect the better part of one's life.

I would seriously suggest a work up with a true POTS specialist. We just came back from Mayo yesterday, and the information from the tests was a real eye-opener. Even though we have had the POTS diagnosis since 1999 and devoured everything we could read on the subject, we didn't really understand our son's situation until Dr. Low put together the results of 3 days of testing. Since so many physical things *could* be going on with POTS, it was hugely helpful to finally find out what was *really* going on in Mike's body. What a blessing that we're finally dealing with facts.

[Wufflebear]

speaking of Mayo...How do you get refferred there? How does it work??

[momdi]

Hi Heather,

My understanding is that anyone can self refer to Mayo - their website is pretty informative. However, if you want to get in to see Dr. Low, he requires a physician referral. Mike's doc sent a referral letter in September, and Mike was contacted in October when he was given his appointment for this January.

We had a meeting on Monday morning with a neurology fellow, saw Dr. Low for a short period of time then, and were given a schedule for 3 days (really 2.5) of tests, then a wrap up appointment with Dr. Low on the 3rd day. We were very pleased. The specific tests that were done gave us a far greater understanding of the details of Mike's POTS. All Mike had ever had before was his holter monitor when he was 8 years old and a TTT at age 16, so we didn't really have much info other than *POTS*.

All the downtown hotels are connected to Mayo by indoor walkways so it was very easy to get around. I think everyone in Rochester is trained by Disney World (joking) as they are all very cheerful, helpful, and efficient.

I hope this answers your questions.