irregular EKG | Arthritis Information

Hi All!

Taylor's ped rhuemy called today and told me that the EKG that they did on Friday was abnormal and they are going to do an echocardiogram. Any experience with this?

Cindy

Yes, I have had one, they are painless. I had something with a dye stuff injected and it made me feel kind of sick but I do not know what the name of it was.

I ended up having a Mitral Valve Prolapse where the valve doesn't shut right. I only have trouble with it once in awhile. I could take meds for it but because I was on so many other meds for the RA I could not take anything for it. I do ok. Not to worry.

an echocardiogram is actually just an ultrasound of the heart. the only thing she will feel is the cold goop they put on before the ultrasound. It just checks the blood flow through the heart.

pam

Before they did my hand surgery, I had to have the preop work done. After they did the EKG, they saw that my heart was skipping a beat so they did a echocardiogram. The gel was cold as was the room and all those electrodes! Then they looked at my heart resting and then put me on a treadmill which was hard for me because of my bad knees and bad hip. After getting my heart beating faster, everything was fine. It's funny what anxeity will do to you.
Taylor will be fine during the test and hopefully the test will show nothing wrong. I'll keep him in my prayers.

Marisa

Cindy,

I have heard a number of different heart study methods described here, but an echocardiogram is an ultrasound of the heart. There is no dye with it. It is noninvasive and it doesn't hurt. Usually, they will do an EKG first and then apply some cold gel to a hand held thing that they position on your chest. It shows them how the blood is moving through your heart and the condition of the valves in your heart. It has been a while since I have had an echocardiogram, but I think it takes about 45 minutes because they have to look at your heart with the probe thing on a lot of different places on your chest. As I said, it doesn't hurt. Good luck and let us know how it comes out.

Pam

THanks all for the info we will be going back to Duke next Thurs for Echo. Doctors said not to worry but that is hard to do.

Cindy(Taylor 13, poly jra/fibromyalgia)