Submitted by Dr T on February 6, 2015 – 12:32pm
Question:
My husband is 66 years old, 6”4′, 247, has high blood pressure & gout. Otherwise healthy. just got back his Holter monitor today. We have the test results, but his Doctor appoint is 3 weeks away. He was in sinus rhythm all the time. He had a minimum heart rate of 53 beats per minute and maximum heart rate of 142 beats per minute with the average heart rate of 82 beats per minute. He had 12,283 ventricular ectopic beats and 3 supraventricular ectopic beats. He had 1 episode of nonsustained VT with a run of 3 beats at a rate of 106 beats per minute. He had no runs on nonsustained SVT. He had 55 ventricular bigeminy episodes and 647 ventricular trigeminy episodes. He had no pauses greater than 2 seconds. The patient reports no symptoms on his diary. He had a regular exam his Drs. office. They did an EKG on which then processed to the Holter monitor. Question is should he have his regular primary Dr. follow-up or should he be seen be a heart specialist. He has no symptoms. Is this just going to be something to watch or is it serious?
Re: “He was in sinus rhythm all the time”, he was not, hence all those arrhythmias.
Your husband needs to be seen by a cardiologist and be evaluated with a number of tests that include a Cardiac echo, and a Stress test for “dangerous” arrhythmias, coronary artery disease and/or a poor heart function. Not every patient has symptoms!
Hope this helps,
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I came in to the hospital with chest pain and difficulty breathing. Was admitted given several tests that came back fine, did chemical stress test because dr was afraid I couldn’t do the physical one, said I passed it, my symptoms have not went say and seem a little worse. I did an angiogram 10 yrs ago and it showed 40% blockage then, had a holter test done a few months ago was told it was abnormal dont know anything about it. I cant lay on my back or side without feeling like I can’t breathe. Im worried because I can’t get any answers. I can’t even climb stairs at work without feeling like I can’t breathe.