Help - Svt?

[becky]

Hey guys,

i need some help explaining myself and making myself understood to my new cardiologist so they don't stop trying to help. ok i'll start again sorry. I have been fainting again - about twice a week for three months. got terrible back pain because of it and a very lumpy head.

I haven't been well for about six weeks, temperatures and feeling ill, but no specific pain, i got antibiotics three weeks ago but i still felt ill.

Last monday(bank holiday for all you uk's) i was in the car with my parents going out for lunch, a big treat considering they'd travelled two hours to come see me. anyway we'd been in the car for about two minutes when i got a pain in my chest like a palpitation, but instead of stopping like it normally does i got this feeling like a muscle spasm or twitch but in my heart?

is this making any sense?

i started to sweat profusley (sp?) and my heart rate shot up, i was breathing normally but i had this pain in my chest like a constant flicker and i felt like something was pressing on me, on my chest and my back.

i felt very weak and dizzy and went quite pale, mum and dad drove me to the hospital which took around twenty minutes, by that time the episode had passed and my pulse had gone down to 106.

my mum said that my pulse was so fast that you could seeit in my neck and that she couldn't count it because it was too fast.

The hospital kept me in overnight and put a telemetry on me, which was fine.

they also did some blood tests, but they couldn't get enough (only one vial!) so they didn't do the urea and electrolytes or blood count. the nurse said if it mattered they'd do it the next day - which they didn't.

i really want to know what happened as this is only the second of these episodes i've had, and they couldn't tell me last time, they said that when my hr went to 224 last time that the machine must be broken.

can you help? anyone else had this? and if so, i'm really scared, will it happen again?

On another note, i went to my doctors after i got released and they did more blood tests, they thought i had glandular fever, which i don't. but it did come back that i have an infection and some kind of allergy, so i have antibiotics (again) and antihistimines (sp?)

sorry this was so long.

becks x x x

[cardiactec]

hey there,

sorry that you are going through all of this.....

I guess the first thing that popped into mind, after you mentioning fevers and infection and such is have they checked you for endocarditis? did they ever get to the root cause of what was/is causing the infection/fevers? endocarditis can cause not only inflammation/infection of the heart itself but can also trigger tachyarrhythmia's, generally certain SVT's... you mention pain as well, which is also can be consistent with some inflammatory process of the heart..............pericarditis is another possibility, which is less serious than endocarditis. generally pericarditis can be hard to diagnose, but if you are as symptomatic as you describe, i would think such pathology would show up on ECG.

also, when they caught your HR at 224 the last time, were you experiencing similar symptoms as you experienced this time? a HR of 224 isnt especially consistent with a sinus mechanism, I suppose it is possible but generally a sinus originating tachycardia doenst exceed 200 -- but there are always exceptions to the rule - i have been in sinus originating tachycardia at 210 BPM, so anything is possible.

I would start with having an echo to make sure the source of infection isnt coming from your heart. once that is eliminated as potential cause, i would suggest wearing a holter monitor or event monitor to try and capture this.......

also, ANY infection (not just cardiac), if significant enough, can cause tachyarrhythmia's to occur.

take care and good luck.

[becky]

Thank you for that,

The ecg that i had at the hospital didn't show anything, just that my heart rate was slightly elevated. i had three ecg's whilst i was there. i was told they were all normal.

However, i still don't feel right, while my chest pain is nothing like it was i just feel like i've a pulled muscle around my chest and left shoulder.

I still have a tempreture and now a sore throat that looks like i have ulcers at the back of it. The doctor has signed me off work for another week because i still feel very flu like even after a week of penicillin and i'm takin antihistimes. i have to have more blood tests done next week because she still thinks there is a chance i might have glandular fever.

The last time that i had an episode like the one i described i was in hospital i had unexplained temperatures and raised white count for two weeks and now i feel just the same as i did then, only i don't take florinef or paroxetine like i did then.

just want to know what is going on.

thanks for all your help.