Sarita..qt about palpitations.

I read your post and the one that was on this forum. My question is, these seemed to have started after starting Humira.
I did tell my PCP this on wed, she's sending me for a 12 lead EKG, also lots of bloods, she wrote on the order Dx; hypergtriglyceridema
? palpitations. I have in the past had large amounts of triglycerides, causing pancreatitis. This was due to 6mp. Is it possible that the
same thing is happening again?
I was recently dx with chronic pancreatitis, due to scarring from the previous acute attacks.
I know that these missed beats are usually benign, but they are really becoming troublesome, and continuous. The doc did mention
the possibility of a prolapse of the mitral valve, this concerned me a little, as my father had a mitral valve problem, he did finally
have a massive MI, but that was after 20 yrs of problems.
Any input you have, would be so helpful. Many thanks...

Ps. I mentioned Humira, because their literature does include heart problems as a side effect.

It's hard to say whether your palpitations could be related to your hypertriglyceridemia. The hardest thing about "palpitations" is that even "normal" people get them and so determining where they come from is not necessarily easy. And it's even harder because palpitations feel very scary and so people tend to jump to the worst possible conclusion (i.e., they have some sort of horrible heart disease). It would be like someone with diarrhea automatically jumping to the conclusion that they have Crohn's disease, when in fact about 293487 things can cause diarrhea - know what I mean?

You'll see within a week whether the EKG and blood work elucidates anything (just remember, the EKG alone cannot be "diagnostic" - it just records a rhythm, which has to be interpreted in the context of the symptoms). If your doctor mentioned mitral valve prolapse (which is also exceedingly common and most people with it don't even know they have any kind of defect in the valve), they might want to get an echocardiogram too, which is basically a glorified ultrasound of the heart, and that would help them see the actual valves and musculature.

I am sorry you are experiencing these scary symptoms, and I hope this proceeds quickly and uneventfully for you. Keep us updated and let me know if you have any more questions.

Actually I am not that busy right now - finals are over! I have a few days off! So ask away...

An EKG can show a lot of things about the heart. It can show if you have an abnormal base rhythm (lots of people with certain types of cardiac disease will have "chronic" changes on their EKGs), it can show if you have premature contractions from the atria or ventricles (which you may not even feel), it can show the axes of the heart and whether the axes are deviated, etc. So it is a very good test for a lot of things. A Holter monitor, which is worn for 24 hours, is helpful to catch more infrequent irregularities, so you're right about that, but it's always necessary to get an EKG first to measure the baseline.

Hang in there, I know it's easier said than done, but I think you will get some concrete answers soon.

It's weird you should mention rapid pulse, my resting pulse rate is around the 100 mark, and it isn't unusual for
it to increase to the 140-160 range especially when in pain. This has all been documented at the hospital.

The weirdest thing is though, sometimes at night, when I'm in the hospital, they've had to wake me as my heart rate
has dropped too low. Now this. TOO WEIRD!!

Ps. My B/P however remains low about 100/60, unless I'm in pain....