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Heart Rhythm Conditions – Welcome to the group

Heart Rhythm Conditions | Last Active: Apr 29 8:06pm | Replies (1323)

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Profile picture for jozie16 @jozie16

Hi
Yesterday I had a sensation of my heart dropping in my chest. It lasted for a little while, it was very noticeable and I’ve never had this happen before. I have supra ventricular tachycardia. I get episodes of syncope (lightheadedness or near fainting) every now and then. And I get a rapid heart rate and sometimes a flutter, or I skip a beat from time to time. Most of the time I don’t notice it. I’ve been seeing a cardiologist for several years (but right now I’m waiting for my new one. I don’t see him until July). I’ve worn heart monitors, and I’ve had EKGs and echocardiograms, but I’ve never had this strong sensation in my heart dropping in my chest before. (I even wonder if my heart stopped), Tomorrow I see a doctor.

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Replies to "Hi Yesterday I had a sensation of my heart dropping in my chest. It lasted for..."

@jozie16 Usually the 'skipped beat' feeling, maybe with a strong thump at the end, is known as a PAC, or premature atrial contraction. SVT, your formal diagnosis, is not a PAC, or rather the other way around...a PAC is not within the greater arrhythmia set that is SVT. People describe what they feel, and helpful listening physicians reply that it's palpitations. It's never a diagnosis, just a way of feeding back that they're listening and understand the sensations involved. PACs really are a pause followed by two catch-up beats that come close together, and one of them is a doozy, often felt as the big one. It's unsettling, but every heart alive this moment has one, six, twenty each day. They're normal. They can climb in number and present an unreasonable, even a morbid, 'burden', typically several thousand each day where the cardiologist would want you to see an electrophysiologist. Also, PACs tend to be forerunners of eventual atrial fibrillation, and AF and SVT are in the same drawer.