Heart Palpitations and Left Arm pain, what could this be?

Posted by zuziapasierbek @zuziapasierbek, Apr 2 7:41pm

For a couple of months now my brother has been having random attacks of heart palpitations along with pains/pokes/pins and needles in his left shoulder, arm and armpit area. This has not been happening during any exercising or extreme activities. Happens randomly when driving or resting. Last case lasted almost 4 hours and heart was at 138 BPM. Has seen doctors and went to hospital, EKG came back normal, chest x-ray did not indicate anything abnormal, and blood work was fine other than Vitamin D Deficiency. Could this be a neural issue or pinched nerve? He is only 29 years old, lives a healthy life. Please help, thank you!

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Dana, Volunteer Mentor | @danab | Apr 5 6:15pm

Hi and Welcome to Connect, My first thought is the need to maybe see a Cardiologist and have what is called a Holter Monitor Test. A Cardiologist will put this heart monitor on Him for a 48 hour period to try and see one of these episodes. He can when He feels one make a note of the time and the Doctor can look at that period on the monitor recording. I find that because the stomach and Heart is so close to each other I have confused palpitations with stomach problems. During the 10 years I delt with heart arrythmias which is similar to palpitations I would when I had one of the episodes check my pulse to determine if it was my heart or stomach. Please let me know if I can help with any questions. Hopefully it something as simple as a bit of Heart Burn, Thats why that name was invented I believe.