Racing heartbeat.

[41Trish]

I was sent to hospital to have my 170 beats a minute pulse settled down. Blood tests clear, previous mitrel valve dignos. To have more investigations. Said they know what caused it, but forgot to ask. Any ideas?

[Hidden]

How did they settle it down? An IV drug called adenosine? If it was stuck in ‘high’, so to speak, it could be something like supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) or atrial fibrillation, which are two types of arrhythmia involving tachycardia. Hard to say for sure though, for obvious reasons; if you give it a few days for the record to reach your GP, they’ll be able to confirm things for you.

[41Trish in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for your reply. They stopped it by getting me to blow into a syringe then they put me on my back with my legs raised. It worked quickly. No drugs or shock.

[Hidden in reply to 41Trish]

This is the valsalva manoeuvre, and it’s usually the first thing used by the medics to try and stop an episode of SVT. I don’t know if it’s ever used in AF. The increase in pressure in the chest stimulates the vagus nerve, which in turn then gets the heart to slow. If it works, it’s a really handy thing to be able to do at home in the event of an episode, but unfortunately doesn’t work for all of us. I think a study found it’s only effective for somewhere in between 15 and 50% of cases, which isn’t exactly high. The good thing is that SVT can often be quite easily managed with medication (and/or an ablation if that’s appropriate) and lifestyle changes such as cutting out caffeine and a few other things can also help. With both SVT and AF, episodes are triggered by ectopic beats, so the aim is to reduce the number of ectopic beats and therefore reduce/prevent episodes of arrhythmia. I had my first major SVT in 2009 aged 26, and then a second major one in 2015, at which point I finally bit the bullet and cut out the things that trigger ectopics for me personally: I went from having a couple of fairly big episodes a month on average to not having had one at all in the last 5 years. I know if I stopped my meds I’d almost certainly end up in SVT again, but the meds and lifestyle in combination have made a huge difference.

[IrisCarter]

It could be atrial fibrillation. Treated with either betablockers, flecainide, magnesium or amiodarone.

[41Trish in reply to IrisCarter]

Thank you.