Extra heart beats

[anne casey]

(Our son, 19 has severe BAV. We have been told surgery is very close, but no set date. He will have stress test and evaluate this spring. We are preparing for surgery this summer.) BUT, his 14 yr. old brother had an echo a year ago and was told no BAV. But recently had an EKG since his basketball coach was concerned with his stamina during play. I received a call from the nurse a week later that the 14 yr. old has "extra beats" but no need for further tests or medical treatment. He can continue to play all sports, no restrictions. Does anyone else have experience with extra heartbeats that are of "no concern?" All his other blood tests came back normal. The drs. Are aware of his brothers condition, so is the coach and I think that is why the coach was extra worried. But how can a parent NOT take their child on for more more tests, or opinions with this knowledge? I'd like others experience with this problem. I know some about benign PVC's....not sure if this is the same thing tho.

 

[newmitral]

Hello Anne,


I myself have such benign "extra heart beats", and I have been experiencing them off and on ever since my OHS over 3.5 years ago. I honestly don't know if I was having them prior to my OHS since I never paid any attention to such heart-related things prior to my valve replacement, which was a completely unexpected event brought on by endocarditis in my case.

My basic heartbeat will not change, but an additional heartbeat will join the primary one.
So, instead of:

tick......tick......tick......tick......

I will get a beat that is more like:

tick.tick.....tick.tick.....tick.tick.....tick.tick.....

When I first noticed this, because it comes and goes randomly, I actually recorded the sound on my cell phone to be sure I had captured it to play for my cardiologist in case it was not happening during my visit to his office. It was easy for me to record since I now have a mechanical mitral valve and if I open my throat the sound of my valve ticking can be heard from my mouth (an interesting party trick).

My cardiologist heard my recording the first visit after surgery and said that this is fairly common, called a "bigemini" heartbeat or "bigeminal rhythm". You can google the terms for a more detailed explanation of the mechanism.

On subsequent visits it was happening during my actual visits and my cardiologist saw it on the EKG traces. Again, he indicated that it was not of concern.

On my most recent visit I had an echo and the extra beats were occurring during the ultrasound and the tech accommodated my request to watch the image on screen as the extra beats happened. I could actually see the two quick blips of flow from the valve as it opened and closed quickly twice. The ultrasound tech told me that he sees this fairly often, and it makes it more difficult for him to estimate the ejection fraction because the flow pattern is atypical, but otherwise he didn't think it was much of a concern either.


The most important thing is that you have had your son's EKG reviewed by a doctor, so you are not just taking the opinion of some stranger on the internet.
If this is what your son has, and your doctor has reviewed your son's condition and said it is nothing to be concerned about, then from my own experience I would say that you can believe him.

I hope this helps to put your mind at ease.