r/askCardiology

I won’t sugar coat it, my biggest fear is cardiac arrest, as I may post about it a lot

Something that interests me is people with no heart problems having cardiac arrest. I’ve seen some people who fortunately survived an event, say the docs didn’t find anything wrong with their heart.

Why do seemingly healthy individuals still have CA? Also why would people with heart defects have them? I have a lot of questions about CA and want to find out more about it.

Ok, I’ll keep it brief, but I feel including my history is helpful.

January 2020, presented with chest pain to ER, had an MI, troponin was over 1k, performed heart cath, had 90% occlusions on right side and 40% on LAD. I had a quad CABG at 38 years old. I have been type 1 diabetic since 7 years old. At time of MI, triglycerides were 1000, A1c was 7.8, cholesterol 215.

January 2026 presented to ER with beat skipping sensations. Troponin 95, performed heart cath, 3 of my bypasses failed, my Lima was 0% occluded. Stented my transverse. Cholesterol 190, triglycerides 560, A1c 8.0.

Most recent labs triglycerides 145, LDL 90, cholesterol 135, A1c 7.6 EF 55.

Recently, about a month ago, I started experiencing a chest tightness when exerting. 2/10 pain, no dizziness, sweating, syncope, nothing. Just a mild tightness that almost feels like heartburn. It does NOT just occur on exertion, and only occurs on exertion occasionally. It’s happened once when I mowed lawn, then never again. Happened last night when I rode my bike, but no other times. Happened once while jogging, but no other times. It’s almost random. It does subside with ceasing physical activity. I know I should not be having angina four months post PCI. Last cardio visit in May, doc did not seem concerned.

It sometimes occurs on exertion, sometimes not. Is this symptomatic of restenosis? Maybe my Lima is failing or something. I’m calling my cardio to describe, just curious if anyone had any thought.

Just a side note, after my stent:

Zero alcohol
Zero THC
Fully medicine compliant
Exercise or cardio 5 days a week
Average BPM while exercising is down down to around 105 right now
Last labs were three weeks ago, and all within normal ranges.

UPDATE

So, wild week. I went to my appt with my cardio on Weds 6/24, he prescribed me Ranexa and Zetia, and scheduled me for an angiography on 7/2.

After the visit, I had zero symptoms, on exertion or otherwise. I mowed the lawn, and rode my bike starting the night of the appointment 6/24, and experienced zero symptoms.

Went for angiography on 7/2, and was 95% restenosed on ends of my stent that I got in January. He placed two more stents, one each in either side of my original stent.

I was shocked AF. All my cardio really said was what we were already doing. Lower A1c and LDL. Zetia will probably get me from 95 to under goal of 50. I have a pump consult for my diabetes, but I have another A1c scheduled in August.

I’ve always been around 7-7.5 on my A1c, so my control hasn’t been horrible.

I am utterly shocked at how I could have gotten a 95% blockage on both ends of my stent, after only four months after having it placed. My cardiologist really had no answers for me either. I have a follow up appointment in one month.

Does this classify as restenosis? Was it scar tissue? My labs were quasi good. What in the hell caused the stenosis? Why so fast? Was there a mistake with the placement of my stent?

I have so many questions, no answers.

Hello I’ve been dealing with this for a while now. It’s like an electrical shock with a deep sinking squeeze feel in my chest when I’m just about to completely fall asleep and it wakes me up abruptly.

It usually only happens once a night and I drift back off nicely. Last night was unusual because when I woke up I heard my self making a noise like I was getting jumpscared when I literally wasn’t.

Idk if it’s anxiety or something worse. I suffer from cardiophobia and always worry it’s a heart thing or sleep apnea but I’m 155 lbs 21M. My Apple Watch never detects sleep apnea.

^(F26 average height and weight, non-smoker & drinker)

Last year I got to meet a cardiologist for my SVT (had it since 2012). While he was doing the echo, he found I have a small left ventricular cavity (diastolic volume 60 ml) with hyperdynamic systolic function (LVEF: 80%). According to him, the diastolic volume should be closer to 80-100 ml. Everything else looked good: normal wall thickness, normal right ventricle, and all my bloodwork is good too. The findings do explain my chronically high resting HR (90ish bpm) and blood pressure (120/87) tho. It was recommended for me to go straight to an ablation (already done, and sadly on the waitlist for a second one) and keep away from beta blockers since I need my high HR.
I feel fine for the most part; I just get exhausted easily, and walking up stairs or doing basic chores like laundry gets my HR in the 160-170s. I get a bit dizzy when I stand up too quickly, and I have passed out from my SVT episodes before. It's been like this for as long as I can remember; I didn't even realize how high my HR actually is until I got a smartwatch and kept track!

I was just wondering if someone else has a similar anatomy to me, or has some more information, since my cardiologist couldn't give me much more than "you have a small but hard-working heart".

Hi everyone, I’ve recently been told by my family doctor that I have Costochondritis but I feel a bit unsure and I was also not given any care instructions or anything (literally all I was given was a link to a website that explains what it is).

I would love to hear from you all if this sounds like Costo or something else that is cardiovascular-related (for context I do have family history from my dad of heart issues), if there are any tests I should to do either confirm or deny the diagnosis and anything to relieve the symptoms.

It started on April 25th when I got back from an overseas trip. The trip was great, I got a slight cold but recovered quickly and I overall had a great time. However, as soon as I got back I started having heart palpitations, which I’ve never had before, they lasted for two weeks and I contacted my doctor and got blood work and a ECG done. My blood work came back normal but my ECG showed a delayed r-wave and I now had chest pain so we decided to repeat it and the second ECG came back normal.

By the end of the second week my heart palpitations stopped but I started having intense bouts of chest pain and I had to take deep inhales to feel like I was getting enough air in, due to this I also had a holter monitor for 24/7 and the results of that also came back normal. Due to all of this, my doctor then just told me I most likely just had Coscochondritis and that was that.

My chest pain has completely gone away (it’s been at least two weeks since I’ve had chest pain) but now my heart palpitations are back (they have been back for two days). The heart palpitations happens whenever, if I’m just waking up, sitting, standing, walking, before or after eating — I can’t sense a pattern.

Other symptoms I’ve had throughout this, they might be related or unrelated, are fatigue/drowsiness and randoms bouts of nausea for week when I also had chest pain. I do plan to speak with my doctor about all of this again but I wanted to get some more insights/advice first and/or important things/observations that might be worth highlighting to my doctor.

Thank you all so much in advance!

vent and just very frustrated. Vulnerable post.

over the last few months. I’ve developed severe agoraphobia and then also this feeling of feeling free when my symptoms aren’t bad but then also I’m still anxious when they aren’t bad because of my whole situation.

I feel like with what I’ve been going through. It’s completely ruined my life. I also did get broken up with the other day which honestly I completely understand why I got broken up with and that’s just because this has made me so incapable.

I’m afraid to drive (had 170 hr driving once) and so other times I’ve been fine that makes me more anxious i have “svt” or I’m afraid to take showers. I’m even afraid to sleep constantly obsessing on my symptoms because of how much it’s taken for me and of course I’m afraid to do things because just doing simple and basic things even just sitting on the couch, I’m having symptoms so of course I’m afraid to go out with friends and then when I don’t have symptoms, I’m anxious because it’s just like confusing overall for me. This has taken so much for me. I don’t know how I’m supposed to have a good summer or go out with friends and socially drink and even go to the beach, which is what I also wanted to do this summer, but I feel like that’s not entirely possible because of my symptoms so I’m just very sad. I’m someone that loves going for walks and I love working out but because of my symptoms again it’s been very hard for me to do. I am curious anyone that deals with the symptoms that I have how are you able to drink and just live your life and have fun because I’m sick of this. I’m 26 and a female so I’m someone that already gets dismissed by doctors.

But the last few months, my sleeping heart rate has been 70 to 115 bpm and I take a max dose of a beta blocker and some days I take an extra beta blocker because my symptoms are so bad when I’m laying flat and I stretch my legs. My heart rate goes up 20 to 30 beats when I drink water or when I laugh or even move slightly my heart rate goes up 20 beats. My doctor told me that I don’t have inappropriate sinus tachycardia because my resting heart rate is 90 or 100 on average but it’s just so confusing cause I could be doing laundry or going for a walk and then randomly my heart rate spikes till like 120 or 130 so I am kind of wondering if it is an appropriate sinus tachycardia and my doctor just doesn’t know?

I do have a POTS diagnosis and I am grateful for that, but I just don’t think that the symptoms I’m having are all related to my POTS like for example when I have a POTS flare if it’s really hot out and I haven’t had much water or I go from sitting to stand in my heart rate goes above 30 beats, and then when I sit, it comes back down automatically that I know is my POTS, but sometimes when my heart rate stays high at rest, even after sitting or my standing heart rate is the same as when I’ve been sitting, it just makes me more confused

No doctor has been able to really give me any explanation for my symptoms even if they can’t diagnose me it’s more of like validating what I’m going through and giving me an understanding of what’s going on and also telling me OK you can drink and you can work, but these are the ways to do it and I feel like my doctor hasn’t done that and I just don’t know if anyone else has experienced that cause again it’s taken so fucking much for me and I’m so frustrated because my personality feels like it was ripped away from me and I’m tired of being this nervous shell of myself

On top of it, I’m still dealing from the trauma and PTSD, which is kind of an extreme word from my episodes in March. When my heart rate hit 170 while I was driving for five minutes and my heart was just racing like so fast and I didn’t even feel anxious before like it happened out of nowhere and then when I got my monitor, which was a few few days later I got my medication because I was nervous and then I only had two seconds of SVT on there with three beats of atrial tachycardia and then they told me well. It wasn’t sustained so we can’t say the other episode you had was sustained or not but I’m like I remember that episode in my heart rate was higher for a longer period so I feel like this means I have SVT and they told me no and they didn’t wanna give me an EP study even though I pushed for it. So they won’t diagnose me with SVT.

I also haven’t even really felt anxious today, but it is 4 July and I’m kind of wanting to go out with friends to a bar but then it’s just like again I’m afraid to drink but last year I drank and I didn’t really have any issues and it was after my pot symptom started and after I think I had like weird tachycardia episode so it’s confusing and I was also on a lower dose beta blocker then as well I just feel so so so left out. And it’s like a daily thought I go to bed and I’m anxious because it’s like I wanna wake up and I wanna like not be afraid to do things. I wanna just go and do them myself or go and work but then I’m just like thinking about my symptoms all the time because some days they might be fine and then other days they’re not like I could have three full days of doing the exact same thing where my resting heart rate could be like 73 and then randomly the day after my resting heart rate is like 95 and I’m getting palpitations and like weird symptoms, but I could literally have the same amount of water and then I try not to overdo electrolytes because I don’t have low blood pressure when I stand. And it’s like I was given a great life like I’m thankful for the things I was given, but I’m anxious because I feel like I’m not living that life to fulfillment like I want to and there’s so many things I wanna do but right now I just feel so incapable on top of the fact that I’ve told this to my doctor told them my worries told them how depressed I am because I’m a 20 six-year-old who wants to go live their life and go have a few drinks at the bar or go for a run and they’re not like really telling me I can or can’t do it but then also like not helping me create some sort of action plan and giving me an explanation.

Ep said no ep study so they said go to another office but the office they recommended requires a referral and they literally haven't given me one and it's been like four weeks
I'm just sick of this because I am someone that struggles with OCD so then when my symptoms aren't bad I'm anxious because I'm just like waiting for them to happen and I haven't even really been anxious today at all, and of course, my resting heart rate is on the higher end today and it's just so frustrating because I feel like I can't ever fully relax. I have days where I'm stressed out and my heart rate is actually pretty low so again this whole thing is just so confusing on top of it and knowing my body, ! know that what I'm going through isn't anxiety.
I also got broken up with recently, which sucks, but I completely understand because this entire thing has made me incapable. I'm 26. I wanna work and live my life.
This is the most depressive ever felt. I'm so frustrated and I'm so angry because it's just like when is it gonna end? | wake up in agony every single fucking day...

I’m also just very frustrated because I think I feel like left out in friendships and relationships just because of what I’m going through and I also understand like people who are chronically oh wanna label themselves as that but I just don’t wanna do that personally because I don’t wanna live in like a victim mentality. This is something I’m really struggling with and it’s like I feel like if I do that I’ll never get better and I would probably hyper fixate on that for example like with my OCD I’m like oh imagine how I would be without my symptoms so it would just add to the victim mentality I’ve thought about going on medication, but I don’t know which one’s best for me. I also do go to therapy as well..

So if anyone relates or has advice on how to live your life how to balance your social life how to have good relationships, how to not label yourself as chronically ill because you don’t want to feel like you are and how are you able to go out and have a good time and drink, socially and also explain how last year I was able to do it. I think I’m so afraid that if I do it, I’ll go into like SVT or something. Or some kind of pot flair.

(The tachycardia is probably my biggest struggle, but I also deal with for about two years now my shoulders and chest, especially if I flex my shoulders down it’s like extremely tight and then I’ve dealt with some like chronic Venus and insufficiency so like I have varicose veins apparently but my legs are like purple a lot, especially if I’m like sitting anytime my legs aren’t elevated. They’re always purple and my doctor still haven’t done anything about it and I’ve tried socks and it doesn’t do anything for me)

I’m also feeling frustrated because I don’t really feel confident with my medication regimen
Like I never know if it’s gonna work or not. Overall, I’m just trying to get to the point that I wanna be someone in their 20s that goes out and enjoys their life, but I feel like I can’t do that but then I also at the same time but it also was like my symptoms and I’m dealing with and being scared. I don’t know what to do.. I want to workout I imagine
That/ how I would feel and being able to go out with friends drinking. And how I would be without my symptoms it’s probably the main reason for my depression and just being upset right now.

I also get nervous. To get my HR up and that upsets me because it’s good for your body. And I am also upset because why would I get my HR up if when I’m sitting im having issues. So walking and working out would be too hard?

Buen día. Ustedes creen que es normal que alguien (sin pareja estable) lleve 6-7 meses evitando el sexo solo porque sufrió un único y primer episodio de Afib? Es una respuesta normal o común? Entiendo que si no tienen pareja estable pueden tener más vergüenza si les repite con alguien con quien no hay confianza… pero me parece excesivo… ¿qué opinan?

¿Como os afectaron los betabloqueantes/antiarritmicos a vuestra libido/vida sexual? Dicen que es prácticamente imposible mantener una erección…
Con el tiempo este problema se pasa? O solo se pasa dejándolos de tomar? Soy nuevo en esto y estoy un poco perdido…
Agradezco cualquier ayuda!

Ive been having a lot of problems the last few years with my heart rate. It’s too high. I just saw my new cardiologist last month & she did an EKG

Yesterday I saw on the portal new results for it. These are the results. It also says my doc team has not seen it yet though & they’ve been closed

I compared to the 2022 test it’s referencing & I did not have abnormal q waves then but my heart was enlarged & I had sinus tachycardia on the prior one. It’s decreased now because I’m on meds to lower it

I’m really wondering if I had a HA in or around 2022 & THATS why my heart is fast now. They keep wanting to find the root cause. That could be a root cause…

- ABNORMAL ECG -
Sinus rhythm
Cannot exclude Inferior infarct, old
Abnormal lateral Q waves
When compared with ECG of 19-Feb-2022 19:25:49,
Significant rate decrease

Age 20
Gender Female
Height 5’11
Weight 65kg
Medication: 150mg of Setralin

(Pls ignore the horrible formatting and spelling, I am very dyslexic)

I have had a long ekg and a stress ekg last year where my doctor determined that my heart does occasionally skip a beat but that it doesn’t seem very serious.

That was before I started Setralin.

I have been getting ekg once a month because of my medication, which I have been taking since January, but these symptoms have only started last month.

What I have noticed since it’s only the 2nd time that it has happened is that it starts around ovulation, the symptoms get stronger and more frequent by each day until it gradually stops mid menstruation.

Symptoms include: headaches, heart constantly skipping (multiple times per minute), (little) vomiting, dizziness, occasional shaky hands, hot flashes.

( The best way I can describe the feeling is when ur in an elevator and it goes down most people feel their heart sink for a sec, I have that constantly.)

What I have noticed is that there is a noticeable difference in the heart skipping and all other symptoms when I am Standing compared to when I am laying down. Also working out and or high emotions alleviate symptoms to some degree

I did go to my doctor last month but she just said that I should take some magnesium.

Hi, so I’ve been on Amlophidine 10mg and valsartan 160mg for about a month now but I still feel mild chest pain, should I be worried? Thanks!

Hey I have a resting heart rate currently at 40bpm and 38bpm sleeping but when I start running or anything like that it goes up to 198bpm and I’m 31 so my max heart rate should only be 189 but I feel like I could go harder but I don’t because I’ll probably throw up at like 202bpm

So my problem is my zone 2 is almost non existent

I’m at like 75bpm speed walking but I can’t get in zone 2 it goes to maybe 100bpm to like 170 instantly once I start running what am I doing wrong???? Because I can’t get in zone 2 by speed walking so there’s no medium between speed walking and jogging

Help

Sharp chest pains left shoulder pain and excess burping these are my main symptoms.

Echo scan 2024 Borderline enlarged ventricles everything else normal
Holter monitor 2024 & 2025 only finding Sinus Bradycardia
2026 Chest X-rays all fine
Treadmill stress test all fine 5 weeks ago
CT Calicum Scan - Score 0 (Didn’t have the contrast as when they attempted my vein collapsed in my arm)

Cardiologist has now discharged me and said my heart is healthy but I keep having these pains sometimes I’m just sat still and get sharp pain in my chest near my heart I also get a strong heart beat when walking stairs sometimes and keep getting pain in my left shoulder down my arm.

Family history dad had SCAD in his 50s and cardiac arrest at 60 his background was bodybuilding and anabolic steroids he now has an ICD.

I’m just lost for answers to what’s wrong with me.

32M
5’8”
180

vestibular migraine (working dx), PPPD raised but not confirmed

Onset: 2024, after COVID. Recurring since, with some remission stretches (several months symptom-free after getting married in Oct 2025). Remember having Covid and feeling like I was going to pass out.

Current flare: Started 5/28/26, daily and severe. Unlike every prior episode, rest and sleep aren’t resolving it this time.

Symptoms:

Floating/rocking sensation, like I’m way above my feet

Feeling out of my body

Near-fainting sensation (never actually passed out) — no racing heart when this happens, which throws me off

Blurry vision

Catching myself holding my breath

Nausea, lightheadedness, trouble concentrating

Ear pressure

Panic attacks during severe episodes

Jaw clenching/TMJ flares with stress

Triggers: bright lights, busy visual environments, loud noises, heat/humidity, motion (driving/travel). Grocery stores are almost impossible right now.
I’m honestly scared to go anywhere at this point. The near-passing-out feeling is the worst part — it’s a lot.

Current treatment:
Amitriptyline (low dose — noticeable improvement)

Magnesium glycinate

Electrolytes every morning (seem to be helping)

Alprazolam as needed

Vestibular PT

Tests that came back clean:
Cardiac: stress test and echo both normal

Thyroid (TSH): normal

CBC, CRP, sed rate: normal

A1C: normal

Hep B/C: negative

Still pending: brain/brainstem MRI, EEG, full labs (with neurology)

Does this sound like VM to anyone who’s dealt with it? Trying to figure out if I’m on the right track.