Can some one help me with a pulse rate Q?
Saturday, December 4th, 2010 at
11:33 pm
I was at my sister in laws sitting on a bar stool and all of the sudden i felt the need to cough. After I did I felt like I had a lump in my lower throat near my chest. Next thing I know my heart was pounding EXTREMELY hard, and shes a RN in the ER. She checked my pulse and it was 170!! We went to the hospital but by the time i got there it was 98, but my ekg was abnormal. Can anyone help?Oh by the way I am a 25 5 foot 3 white female that weighs 105.
Sounds very much like an episode of Paroxysmal Atrial Tachycardia (PAT).
At your age brief PATs is not as dangerous as it is unpleasant, but the spells tend to recur once they’ve begun…and without treatment you can depend on plenty of such episodes.
This is no way to live: I know you didn’t like it at all!
You must be seen by a physician to properly diagnose the variety of tachycardia that you’re susceptible to…and get proper treatment (pills) to correct whatever minor abnormailty in your heart muscle is causing slight electrical irritability there. Nothing to be scared about: no nasty tests… and often just a "halter monitor" to watch your heartbeat all day once…but DO see a GP or cardiologist pronto.
It is possible that you had a short burst of a supraventricular tachycardia or one of several other fast heart rates. If it happens again, you need to get set up with your doctor for a Holter Monitor that tries to catch abnormal rhythms when they occur. If they only occur after long periods of time, these are very difficult to catch with a Holter Monitor. This is possible that this might have been an isolated incident but you will just have to wait and see if further problems develop. If they do, you need to see your family physician who wil refer you for further testing if needed.
To the MD…what about AVNRT??