Looking for honest opinions on my heart testing because I’ve been stressing myself out over this.

I had an echocardiogram done that showed:

• Left ventricle normal size
• Normal wall thickness
• EF 55-59% but the Actual was 52.5
• Normal systolic function
• No regional wall motion abnormalities
• Normal diastolic function
• Right ventricle normal size and function
• TAPSE 1.7 cm
• Both atria normal size
• No significant valve abnormalities

After the echo, I later went to the ER for shortness of breath and they did a chest X-ray. The X-ray impression said:

“Cardiomediastinal silhouette is mildly enlarged.”

That finding really scared me because I started worrying about heart enlargement or heart failure. They didn’t check a BNP.

Since then I’ve also had:

• occasional shortness of breath
• random upper back pains
• occasional pulsating feeling in my neck
• anxiety over the X-ray finding

My question is: if the echo showed normal chamber sizes and normal heart function, how concerning is the “cardiomediastinal silhouette is mildly enlarged” finding on the chest X-ray? Does the echo usually give a more accurate picture of heart size and function?

Hi! I’m a 25 year old female, I asked to be referred to a cardiologist because of a couple of things , one being I was have flutter sensation in my chest, making me feel the need to make myself cough and or like clear my throat , another thing is sometimes when I get up too fast I’d feel like my heart would race briefly sometimes making me lightheaded and I’d have to sit down for a second . I notice this after I’d smoke weed and stand up quickly this wouldn’t happen often if was a very rare occurrence but enough for me to be like hmm probably shouldn’t ignore that.

Even in high school if I sat up too quickly I’d feel my blood all rush to my head and sitting up would make me a little dizzy (not always combined but fast heart rate) but there was one particular time it happened when I smoked that really stool out to me and I’ve not forgot it since . (Within the last couple of months is when I had that episode.)

Fast forwards - I went to the cardiologist, explained my symptoms and he suggested with two the two week ZIO holter, I wore and pretty much felt no symptoms the entire time I had it on. There was one night I do remember where I was laying on right side and took a deep breath , and felt a thump in my belly that traveled up. I did the same thing and the same thing happened but did not happen after the 3rd Deep breath. It was obviously a weird sensation but nothing that freaked me out.

Results for the zio came back with the following information.2-week ZIO monitor reviewed.  Underlying rhythm was sinus with an average rate of 77.  HR ranged from 48-148.  There is a 12 beat ventricular salvo noted, which occurred at around 1:50 AM..  In addition, rare PACs, rare PVCs.Patient had a min HR of 48 bpm, max HR of 156 bpm, and avg HR of 77 bpm. Predominant underlying rhythm was Sinus Rhythm. 1 run of Ventricular Tachycardia occurred lasting 12 beats with a max rate of 156 bpm (avg 142 bpm). Isolated SVEs were rare (<1.0%), and no SVE Couplets or SVE Triplets were present. Isolated VEs were rare (<1.0%), and no VE Couplets or VE Triplets were present.

I immediately searched up what all this means , as my doctors summary note was a 12 beat episode of NSVT was caught and he wanted to order an echo but believed to be benign. , I instantly started freaking out and actually went to the hospital - the hospital ended up admitting me that way I could have an echo the following day considering a echo wasn’t able to done until December , so I took that opportunity and was monitored through the night.

Fast forward / all results came back as I had a normal
Structural heart , and the only thing they saw was There is trace to mild tricuspid regurgitation which the doctors
Confirmed which was not a concern to them as this can be some peoples normal.

I’m having a hard time understanding HOW nsvt is brushed off as benign and “no worry” when I read on Google and other places how dangerous this can actually be, yes I’m aware more dangerous in people with actual structural heart issues, but how likely is this not to turn into something more catastrophic? I mean, I haven’t been able to shake this feeling of fear. I Am functioning like working and doing the things I need to, but realistically it has me so shook up my hands are constantly sweating, I feel so
Much aware of my heart & feel the flutters have gotten weirdly worse since I’ve had all this stuff done.

I’ve posted on other community pages about this already, but I’m hoping I can get some further reassurance by others who may have or is going through this or in the medical field who sees this kind of stuff ? I am absolutely horrified. I want to be a mom, I am
So scared this will ruin the chance of that happening. I’m scared to sleep , to really do anything besides sit here lol. It’s like I feel DOOMED.

I come with no judgement if anyone wants
To message me directly if not comfortable enough to comment publicly. Thank you for reading this I know it’s long 😩

hey everyone, hope you're all doing well. bit of an odd one to post but genuinely can't figure this out and this community might have some experience.

noticed a consistent pattern after I masturbate I feel okay for a bit, but the next day or two I feel drained, weak, and get this random chest pounding out of nowhere. not during any activity, just randomly. heavy unwell feeling that doesn't shift.

then once I do it again it kind of resets.

for context I'm 32, slightly elevated BP, currently getting a full blood workup done — cortisol, thyroid, hormones, liver. so not ignoring it medically.

but this specific pattern is something I noticed myself. hormone crash? nervous system? dopamine?

anyone been through something similar and figured out what it was? would really appreciate it 🙏

Hello doctors and/or nurses, I have a question. So last year during some vigorous sparring my heart rate went up to about 220. I felt as though I was having a heart attack, went to the hospital, had an EKG, nothing wrong. Okay, weird but fine, I went to a cardiologist to check everything out. Before going to the cardiologist, I was working out doing cardio, and bam, heart rate flies up to 215. Left the gym and went to the hospital, unfortunately on the way there I had a severe panic attack, due to ya know the high heart rate.

After that bunch, I got to see the cardiologist, had the ultrasound, stress test, and the dye test (where it feels like you are peeing). Everything came back completely normal. No clogged arteries, everything is beating properly, nothing. Okay, strange, so then maybe it's an electrical issue.

Got an appointment at an electrophysiologist, explained my whole ordeal, they are like that sounds like an SVT, let's go in and see. So I go through the ablation, they check everything aaaaaaaaandddd nothing. Now I have a 1-3 year inserted heart monitor, and still no answers to what's going on.

If I walk for too long, bam heart rate at 175, if I jog, bam heart rate up, and then the impending panic attack happens. Any ideas from you all would be greatly appreciated.

trying to help my dad find a cardiologist and honestly the search has been exhausting. we checked google reviews, asked friends, looked at doctify profiles, but every clinic somehow has perfect ratings. would really appreciate recommendations from people who had an actually good experience.

In May 2007, a patient walked into a clinic with high cholesterol, a breathing problem, and some joint pain. The doctor adjusts their statin, notes the COPD, and sends them home.

Nothing in that visit suggests what the next decade will look like.

Before Anyone Knew What Was Coming (2007–2008)

For the next year, the numbers are there — hyperlipidemia, hypertension, COPD — each managed in its own silo, each treated as a separate problem. Nobody is connecting them into the picture they're collectively drawing: a cardiovascular system being loaded, slowly, like a spring.

Then September 3, 2008.

The LAD artery — the one cardiologists call the widow maker — gives out. Acute myocardial infarction, anterolateral wall. This isn't a warning shot. It's a full infarction of a major coronary territory. The kind that scars the heart permanently, leaves dead muscle where living muscle used to be, and sets the stage for everything that follows.

The same admission shows atrial fibrillation has already begun. The heart's electrical system is fraying alongside the muscle.

One month later, October 2008: a stroke. The same arterial disease that attacked the heart has been advancing in the brain too. Two systems, failing at once, in the same month.

When the Body Starts Keeping Score (2009–2012)

By 2009, type 2 diabetes was added to the list. The patient is now managing six conditions simultaneously — coronary artery disease, persistent atrial fibrillation, COPD, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. Each one a full-time condition. Each one makes the others harder to control.

The anticoagulants needed for the A-fib carry bleeding risk. The diabetes is accelerating the arterial damage the statins are trying to slow. The COPD is straining a heart that's already compromised. Every treatment decision is a negotiation between competing risks.

By 2012, the atrial fibrillation had escalated to atrial flutter. The electrical architecture of the heart is getting worse, not better.

The record from this period runs to over 160 encounters. Cardiology. Electrophysiology. Pulmonology. Endocrinology. The calendar is full. The trajectory is not improving.

The Breaking Point (September–October 2013)

September 26, 2013: the first documented ventricular fibrillation event. The heart stops coordinating entirely. Cardiac arrest.

Then it happens again. And again.

Over five weeks — September 26 to October 30, 2013 — the heart goes into ventricular fibrillation six times. Six cardiac arrests. Six times someone brings it back.

October 17, 2013: cardiogenic shock. The heart can no longer maintain enough pressure to keep the organs perfused. ICU. Vasopressors. Without intervention, more than half of patients in cardiogenic shock don't survive.

November 11, 2013: a permanent pacemaker is implanted. The device that will govern this heart's rhythm for the years ahead goes in.

Surviving Is Not the Same as Being Okay (2014–2017)

The patient leaves the ICU. The pacemaker holds. Life continues — but survival comes with a cost that gets paid in installments.

September 2015: acute pericarditis. The sac surrounding the heart becomes inflamed — a new crisis layered onto an already compromised system.

December 2015: acute decompensated heart failure. Back in the hospital. Even a heart being paced can weaken.

By 2016, the kidneys have reached Stage 4 chronic kidney disease. This is the cardiorenal spiral — years of reduced cardiac output have quietly strangled the kidneys, and now failing kidneys are limiting what can be done for the heart. Medications that might help can no longer be used at full dose. Some can't be used at all.

The COPD, noted as a background condition in 2007, has progressed to chronic respiratory failure.

January 5, 2017: the last documented encounter. CKD, diabetes, anemia. The record ends here, a decade after the first visit.

We don't know what came after.

What Actually Worked — And What Couldn't Be Undone

✅ The pacemaker — the decision that changed everything. After six cardiac arrests in five weeks, the pacemaker implanted in November 2013 stabilized the heart's electrical system. The patient survived the shock and went on to have 3+ more years of documented outpatient life. Without it, another VF event would almost certainly have been fatal.

✅ Anticoagulation held the stroke line. Warfarin/NOAC managed the stroke risk from persistent atrial fibrillation — present continuously from 2008 through 2017. No second cerebrovascular event is documented across that entire period. For a patient who had already had one stroke, that outcome is not guaranteed. It's the result of sustained, careful management.

✅ Standard heart failure therapy slowed the decline. ACE inhibitor and beta-blocker therapy likely slowed the deterioration of cardiac function after shock. The patient maintained 2+ years of outpatient life before the next major decompensation in December 2015.

✅ 160+ visits over 10 years meant nothing was missed. When the kidney disease escalated, when the respiratory failure emerged — it was caught. Not perfectly. Not fast enough to reverse it. But early enough to respond.

❌ The kidney damage couldn't be undone. Years of reduced cardiac output had been quietly destroying renal tissue. By 2016, CKD Stage 4 had become the dominant diagnosis — and was now limiting which cardiac medications could safely be used. The organ that bore the cost of circulatory failure became the one most in need.

❌ The COPD reached its endpoint. What was noted as a background condition in 2007 had progressed to chronic hypoxic respiratory failure by 2016. Every breath became an effort. No cure. Only management.

Male/28/active.

Urgent care told me to head to the ER after still having a fever and very bad headache. I arrive and they take several blood test. My troponin levels were very high. Starting in the 590’s and raising all the way to 951 I believe. After a while it did start to drop with the last test being 591, a total of 5 tests were done for that. I also received 2 X-rays, 2 CT scans, 2 ekgs, 1 echo, and 1 MRI. Weird thing is they all came back good from reading on MyChart and talking to the doctors. No myocarditis, no heart disease. My question is do I get a second opinion? Or do I continue with taking my prescribed 600mg ibuprofen and hope my terrible headache and fever go away? I will have follow up appointments with the Infections disease dr and the heart dr as well. Just have to call them today. They sent me home late last night.

I am a 25 year old woman who was referred to a cardiologist last year by my PCP. After several tests at the cardiologist and explaining my symptoms to the NP in the office I was told that my results weren’t clinically worrisome and that along with my age, general health status, and family history means that they aren’t very concerned but to return if my symptoms get worse. I am at a point where I can’t tell if my symptoms are worse or if I am just noticing my symptoms more. I want to get an opinion here on if I should go back to the cardiologist or seek a second opinion.

Summary of tests completed:
- EKG
- Cardiac ultrasound
- stress test
- 48 hour halter monitor

Results noted in my chart:
- global longitudinal strain -12%
- mild tricuspid regurgitation with rvsp 19 mm Hg
- trace mitral regurgitation
- psap 19 mm Hg
- unspecified tachycardia (said 14%)
- resting heart rate 70, min heart rate 58, max heart rate 189
- BP 100/65
- Stress test peak says 169 BPM (86%) after 7 min with BP 142/82
- No diagnostic ST-T changes
- Normal hemodynamic response to stress (86% PMHR).
- Non-ischemic ECG response to stress.
- Normal exercise tolerance

Symptoms:
- unexpected dizziness/ black spots in vision during normal activities (walking, standing, and exercise). Very non specific, it is very random.
- Very high heart rate during normal exercise. HR will be sustained at 170-180 during a walk with the dog on flat surface, while lifting at the gym, rock climbing etc. Low and high intensity exercise produces the same result
- Elevation changes (hiking, airplane) cause clammy feeling like I have the flu, high heart rate, nausea. Usually end up dry heaving (occasional vomiting) and being drenched in sweat and then I am suddenly fine again. Only occurs on initial ascent.
- my husband says I sound like a 65 year old obese man when I am on a normal walk. Huffing and puffing and like gasping for breath but I feel completely fine. Like my body feels good but I just can’t catch my breath even on slow flat walks.
- I will feel completely fine while walking and then all of a sudden get like tunnel vision and be unable to take a full breath and then it’s like my limbs stop moving. Like I can’t control my legs anymore and can’t take another step until I lay on the ground for a few minutes.

Personal/ family background
- I workout 6 days a week, combination of weight lifting, mountain biking, walking the dog.
- normal weight (5 feet tall 110 pounds)
- medications are hormonal BC and Adderall 15 mg
I do not take any of my stimulant if I will be working out like at the gym or biking, but weirdly enough I notice fewer symptoms if I have taken my adderall that day (like before or around the time of a walk).
- normal cardiac labs
- paternal grandmother had a heart attack and quad bypass at age 80 still kicking!
- paternal uncle had a heart attack at age 45 and died (was a chronic abuser of cocaine though)
- high BP runs on paternal side of the family (mostly lifestyle though)

I have been traveling a bit more recently and have been experiencing my plane symptoms consistently now instead of only once in a while. Also, as the weather has been getting nicer I’ve been doing more outdoor exercise and I’m just getting pissed off because I am a very athletic person and then just randomly I feel like I’m about to drop dead and vomit everywhere on a simple hike. I can’t really tell if it’s getting worse or just inconveniencing me more? I’ve never had to end an activity early, just take way more breaks than necessary. But I am 25!! I feel like I shouldn’t have to be inconvenienced like this.

Any advice is appreciated!

I had symptoms with skipped beats and mild dizziness, holter monitor caught 15 V runs in 24h is that too much? doctor dont even mentioned it

Hi!

I normally don’t suffer from more than the occasional PAC or PVC, but tonight I’ve been experiencing PACs in a trigeminy or quadrigeminy pattern without any concerning shortness of breath, and no acute chest pain. I am experiencing some GERD however, if that’s at all worth mentioning.

It’s odd because I’m really only getting them when I lay down, and they are either much less noticeable or temporarily resolved when I sit up. I don’t drink caffeine or alcohol, but did 90 minutes of brisk incline walking about 3 hours before this all started.

Is this something to be concerned about? Or does this ever happen to others?

I have sick sinus syndrome and recently got a pacemaker, woke up this morning crummy and was driving, saw my watch saying my hr was at 52bpm while usually it’s at 90bpm or something like that while driving. Should I ask my doctor to set the pacing a higher threshold, currently at 50s.