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What Causes Elevated Heart Rate?
Hi I am a 23 year old female, 5 7, 12 st. I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrone 10 years ago. A few weeks ago I found out that I have an abnormally fast heart rate for someone of my age, I thought I might have Postural Tachycardia Syndrone (a friend had sent me an article about it, my doctor and I had never heard of it but seems to fit my symptoms). So I went to the doctor and discussed it with her my heart rate sitting was 108bpm and when I stood rose to 140bpm, she said come back to the nurse and have her do it again and an ECG, so I did the following week, ECG was fine, this time my heartrate was 72 laying down then only rose to 73 when I stood. So I am now thinking that it is not POTS- (although the doctor had put me back onto 80mg of propranolol, could this make the difference?). Do you have any ideas of what this could be? I don t know whether this is relevant but my brother had SVT a couple of years ago, other than that no known heart problems in my family.
posted on
Fri, 14 Mar 2014
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Thu, 10 Nov 2016
Answered on
Fri, 11 Nov 2016
Last reviewed on
Hello!
Welcome on HCM!
I carefully passed through your question and would explain that your symptoms could be related to different causes:
- an orthostatic intolerance. Although your heart rate changes are not typical of postural tachycardia, it is necessary performing a Head Up Tilt test to exclude this possibility.
- a metabolic disorder (chronic anemia, thyroid dysfunction, adrenal gland dysfunction, vitamin D sufficiency). For this reason, I would recommend performing some blood lab tests:
- complete blood count
- thyroid hormone levels
- cortisol plasma levels
- vitamin D plasma levels
- blood electrolytes.
I don't think your symptoms are related to your family history.
You should discuss with your doctor on the above issues.
Hope to have been helpful!
Kind regards,
Dr. Iliri
Welcome on HCM!
I carefully passed through your question and would explain that your symptoms could be related to different causes:
- an orthostatic intolerance. Although your heart rate changes are not typical of postural tachycardia, it is necessary performing a Head Up Tilt test to exclude this possibility.
- a metabolic disorder (chronic anemia, thyroid dysfunction, adrenal gland dysfunction, vitamin D sufficiency). For this reason, I would recommend performing some blood lab tests:
- complete blood count
- thyroid hormone levels
- cortisol plasma levels
- vitamin D plasma levels
- blood electrolytes.
I don't think your symptoms are related to your family history.
You should discuss with your doctor on the above issues.
Hope to have been helpful!
Kind regards,
Dr. Iliri
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