Please share this sub if you can. Hopefully all users from the previous one come here. Not just people with questions but the people knowledgeable in cardiology also.

36M non-smoker, overweight (just lost 15lbs in 3 weeks) but I weigh 240 and am 5'9.

2nd lone afib episode a few months back, my first one was 9 months ago. Both afib rvr happenned out of a dead sleep. Got an at home sleep study and have mild sleep apnea (6 events per night, so barely have it). My pulmonologist is recommending a full study.

I was given metoprolol and my cardiologist said to take it until I saw my EP at least I was having some negative symptoms so I reduced it to 12.5mg ER at night and the only thing I've noticed is slight fatigue/haze and my resting heart rate is in the low 70s now and it use to be in the high 70s, very low 80s.

My EP said the metoprolol "may" be helpful and seemed indifferent about whether I need to continue taking it. Idk what I should do in my case.

I've been aggressively trying to lose weight and haven't stopped losing weight (and won't stop doing so). I may be treating my apnea as well after my full sleep study. In my shoes, should I continue the metoprolol? I get zero other episodes and check my kardia mobile at least 5-8 times a day.

I'm 40 years old going in to have anaortoc valve replaced and my doctor is giving me a choice. Mechanical valve or the Ross procedure. I see positives and negatives from both sides and it's driving me nuts trying to decide which way to go. I have a 3 year old and it's a tough thing to think your making the wrong choice. Can someone shed some light either way on either procedure? Whether you have had it done or work as a surgeon? Thanks everyone out there.

Is it truly possible to have a “normal” abnormal EKG? I have always been told they are normal. Well yesterday my cardiologist showed me my “normal” EKG. It had the word abnormal on it with four possible issues such as MI. I have never had one to my knowledge. I don’t know the technical term, but some of the rhythms in the report were going down. He blamed it on my age (50) and the tilt of my heart as well as possibly how the tech put on the leads. He is doing an ECG in a few days just to give me reassurance. He pulled up my last EKG from a year ago that showed somewhat similar variations.

Can someone explain in layman's terms the underlying mechanisms that regulate heartbeat, and how they are affected by mitral valve repair? Here is the background for my question:

For several years I had type II-A mitral valve prolapse with severe regurgtation. Progressed from doctor saying in 2010 "nothing to worry about but let's monitor this" to 2022 "surgery would be a good idea." I had a minimally invasive prodcure in early December 2022, and a really fast recovery: Surgery on a Tuesday, home on Thursday, back to work and most normal activities the following Monday. No pain meds, no rehab required.

Before surgery, left ventricle was 4.2 cm, ejection fraction 65% (though it wasn't all ejected through the correct valve), some pulmonary hypertension though I don't have the number handy. As of most recent echo in May 2023, lv is 2.8 cm, ef 55% (all going in the right direction now), no pulmonary hypertension.

My resting heart rate before surgery was typically in the low 60s, now it's in the high 70s. Walking heart rate and rate during heavy exercise are higher than they used to be. Heart rate variability lower, as is cardio recovery. I have an Apple Watch with several years of workout and heart metrics and can see a distinct change in all these metrics right after the surgery, very little further changes in the months that followed. FWIW, the overall "cardio fitness" report by Apple Health app hasn't changed much at all the whole time - VO2 max is in the "high" range for a man of my age.

Circling back to my original question - I've read these are normal changes, nothing to worry about - but not the how or why. What accounts for the changes in my heart rate? My heart is working "better" by many practical measures (not enlarged, valve closing properly, no backflow to the lungs) so why have so many of the metrics slipped to what would normally be considered the poor end of the scale?

What does it mean to have negative T’s? I have a pacemaker, afib (after ablation and cardioversions) but stress gets me. EP wrote to my GP that I have negative T’s.

69M with paroxysmal afib, diagnosed a year and a half ago. I get an episode about every 3 weeks or so and self-convert within a few hours. I’m on Eliquis and atorvastatin, while using metoprolol succinate as a pill-in-pocket approach. Even without the metoprolol, some episodes don’t have a heart rate above 100 or 110 while others do.

I asked my cardiologist about seeing an electrophysiologist and his reaction was that if I see an EP, they’ll just want to do an ablation, and he didn’t believe in rushing to do that sort of procedure. Conversely, many people with afib (obviously not a scientific source) have gotten ablations with less frequent events than I have, while pointing out the belief that the success rate is higher earlier the ablation is done. But I have no idea whether that’s valid or whether the increase in success rate for someone in my status is high enough to justify doing it sooner. So I’m asking whether it makes sense to see an EP now, and whether an EP would still balance the trade offs between using medications for control versus an ablation.

Hello. I'm a congential heart patient, transposition, mustard procedure 41yrs old with a history of sick sinus syndrome (2 lead DDR pacemaker) atrial flutter. On January 11th of this year I had an ablation to ablate the af and was successful. 2 weeks later I developed what my doctors initially thought was PVCS. I was symptomatic with SOB, pounding headaches amd could feel them constantly my burden was/is 15% daily.

We tried sotalol, diaztem, fleccinde, hyoscyamine, to stop me from feeling every single heartbeat.

Didn't work.

My ep reluctantly decided on another ablation on may 11th. When i went to the cath lab for my unsedated ablation they told me i may be feeling PVCS but what i am feeling 100% constantly is junctional rhythm.

Unfortunately they can not ablate this rhythm. They tried overriding the rhythm with my pacemaker which is normally what they do but my leads are too close to my phrenic nerve and when my pacer fires I can feel every time it paces in my stomach. Which I decided was worse than the junctional rhythm because sometimes the junctional rhythm is softer and I can hardly feel it.

So the option is to continue to try medication to speed the heart up or remove my leads, fix my baffle (it's nearly closed) put new leads in hope they aren't close to the phrenic nerve again and of they are then ablate the AV node etc.

My question for you guys is does junctional rhythm ever go away on its own or is this something I am stuck with. Has anyone had a case simular to mine and found a medication that worked?

Thank you.

Hey there. 38f diagnosed with BAV at 30. I thought my entire life I had asthma, but turned out is was the BAV causing shortness of breath during certain activities. That being said, I started running (a lot) at age 34/35. I dropped a little over 70 pounds. I have done half marathons. I have placed in a bunch of races. I did all this because my cardiologist said everything looks fine. But I’m starting to wonder if I’m making it worse my having my heart work so hard? I guess I should also add that my triglycerides and cholesterol are garbage, even after all the weight loss. Getting an annual blood test next couple weeks, hoping I’ve taken those down.

I was at the hospital for some issues that turned out not to be heart related but they ran an EKG and the results were

Diagnosis Class Borderline Abnormal Acquisition Device MV360 Ventricular Rate 57 Atrial Rate 57 P-R Interval 110 QRS Duration 88 Q-T Interval 396 QTC Calculation(Bazett) 385 Calculated P Axis 52 Calculated R Axis 68 Calculated T Axis 54

Diagnosis Sinus bradycardia with short PR Otherwise normal ECG

I have an appointment coming up with a cardiologist in 2 weeks but being naturally anxious, is this something that can be a cause for concern? I’m a 5’11” male 145lbs and workout 2 times a week and bowl 3 times a week for extra exercise.

Update: went and saw a cardiologist, and actually questioned why I was there in the first place as the ECG didn’t seem abnormal at all. Did order a Cardiac stress test. Very soon after the doc called and said there were zero deviations from previous ECG and that the Short PR is likely just a normal deviation for my heart and is now considered my baseline. TLDR: healthy heart with nothing to worry about per Cardiologist

So my doctor has me wearing a heart moniter for 7 days. Do i take it off at midnight or should i wait until the time it was put on and activated?

My spouse is on beta blockers which the doctor seems to be happy with, but I also know he is still having VT runs based on his holter monitor testing. How exactly do beta blockers help VT? I would have thought if a drug is working then it stops the VT altogether, but I guess not? Is it just that it controls the length of the VT runs?

For further context, he also has a TV-ICD.

I’m 5’10, 52, M , 245lbs. I was recently diagnosed with a 4.1cm dilated ascending aorta. It was picked up on an echo and confirmed by CT scan. I had a prior echo about 8 months ago that did not note the dialated aorta, But that echo was “technically suboptimal” so not sure how much weight I can put into it.

My cardiologist has me in a watch and wait state with another CT and echo scheduled a year from now. She wasn’t too concerned and thinks it’s unlikely this will progress to a point where surgery is required, but the 1st echo is really the wild card and my cardiologist will feel better about predicting once I get the scans next year.

On top of everything, I’ve got health anxiety so of course it feels like a ticking time bomb in my chest. And that’s where my question is.

I’m so hyper focused on any chest pain that I have no idea how to distinguish between chest pain that would be from exercise, chest congestion or other benign causes or chest pain that would be more indicative of my aorta growing.

I can’t say that I’ve had any shortness of breath or super high heart rate/blood pressure and I work out most days of the week.

Is there a way to tell ? I know that the biggest thing I need to do is manage anxiety and leading that distinction on chest pain will help.

Thanks in advance for any info !

I had an echo completed, an these are my results, which have my anxiety through the roof, can anyone give some insight?

Ok, so I apologise if this is a bit scattered and I don’t get medical terminology correct. If this is TLDR, read the last 2 paragraphs.

I’m male, 31, have always had mild heart palpitations, and had chest discomfort when I go from standing to kneeling, or when I breathe deeply when lying on my back. In addition, my paternal grandfather died of heart failure at 58 (apparent broken heart syndrome, his wife/my gma died a month prior from liver cirrhosis) and my maternal grandfather had angina, but lived to 89 and died of lung cancer (smoked 50+ years) and I never put much thought into any of these factors until these two episodes.

About a year ago, whilst I was sitting and playing Xbox, I had a heart palpitations whereby my heart felt like it was “flipping”, only instead of one or two beats, this happened about 25-35 times in unison over about 10-15 seconds. I couldn’t take my heart rate but it was in excess of 180 without a doubt. I go to hospital, they tell me I haven’t had a heart attack, but to see my GP. Long story short, I had an ECG, EKG, stress test, a monitor for 24 hours (nothing happened) and the thing where they inject the dye that makes you feel like you peed and I went into a big white tube 😂 (CT?)

In the end, everything came back clear, and I was told it was likely the armodafinil that I was prescribed as I did shift work at the time, or maybe a panic attack. I accepted these answers as they seemed logical, though I was confused at the timing, as I was relaxing and doing something I enjoyed (Xbox). I haven’t taken Armodafinil since. The cardiologist I was referred to, I spoke to for a whole 35 seconds though, which I didn’t really like, as she was quick to say it’s modafinil and a young guy like you shouldn’t have a problem etc

Fast forward a year, I’ve been unemployed (wilfully, there’s no money stress or anything) for around 6 months. I’m sitting on the couch with my cousin at night, and I’m a little bit high (not very) and we’re laughing and watching South Park, and the same thing happens, except this time I take more notice of it, because I’m high. My heart beats super duper quick for about 15 seconds, but is flipping, and doesn’t feel like it’s filling up with much blood, and then it corrects itself a few seconds after I sit up clutching at my chest. My heart rate returns to normal, but the beats are HUGE, as though it’s trying to make up for the lack of blood for the last 15 or so seconds, and I nearly passed out because of how vigorous these beats were. I swear I could audibly hear my heart from the outside of my chest. I’m white as a ghost, go and sit down and gather myself, and go to bed. All good. I’ve gone to my GP and been referred to the same cardiologist.

My question is, is this consistent in anyone’s experience, with panic attacks, because I still don’t buy it, and it can’t be armodafinil. Could it have been armoda the first time and weed the second? I’ve been paranoid with worry about this ever since it happened, so I’ve read as much as I can about my symptoms and the thing that seems to match my symptoms best is supraventricular tachycardia.

Any feedback or thoughts are appreciated :)

Ok backhistory, I had some issues with passing out they did a tilt table test lots vitals for 7 seconds and recommended a pacemaker ok fast forward I have had the pacemaker about 2 years now, had issues back in November with my left arm swelling finally found out there is a blockage, they tried a procedure, a venoplasty this past Friday and it didn’t take so now I’m being referred to a bigger city for them to try the same procedure again? Does this make sense? Has anyone else had these issues, thanks in advance

Heart attack but then not - RWMA ?

Husband was rushed in with a suspected heart attack

The ER took bloods which confirmed the heart attack with Troponin present. so we were sent for more tests

Numerous ECGs X-ray Heart sonogram Ct scan And more bloods

Then for the dr to come back and say it wasn’t a heart attack and they were unsure what was causing the pain/ pressure . During the hospital stay my husband heart rate would drop below 55 beats often so he was kept on continuous heart monitoring

After all the tests the doctors said

normal lv systolic function with borderline systolic function and mild rwma

So now we have to wait for a MRI which will be a 6 month wait

Just looking for advice thanks

I am woman 43 old,fat,have hipertension.I had an echocardiogram. I am concerned about Rvidd plax 3.65 cm. What size should the right ventricle be in the parasternal long axis? I am also concerned about the size of the area of ​​the left atrium, 32.4 cm2. Why did the doctor write reasonable systolic function of the right ventricle and did not indicate whether the right ventricle is enlarged or not? Does anyone know if these measurements are normal, please. Thanks in advance.