Oximeter recorded anxiety attack

[sdurbin]

I have been having these for years and I was diagnosed with "harmless" PVCs. This is physiological anxiety, not emotional. I was thrilled to record it as I have a doc. appt. tomorrow and can show it to him. Pulse rate was so high I had to adjust the report scale (PR) on the CMS50E oximeter software up to 175 to catch most of the data. Average was 106.6 for the five hours I caught.



I was on CPAP and O2 for the five hours but the attack wakes me up so I got up and watched CNBC. I fell okay other than normal concern when you heart is acting weird. In the past I have verified what I was feeling with a stethoscope I keep around for that reason. Hear rate and strength is very erratic. Blood pressure this am was 113/72 (I am usually ~130/90 and on Diovan HCT 320mg/12.5mg for it). My doc. will say, "Don't worry about it.", but should I be concerned?

[M.D.Hosehead]

If your doctor doesn't act on this, get another opinion. It could be anxiety attack. It could also be paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, which is an increased risk in people with SA.

[jnk]

I have been having these for years and I was diagnosed with "harmless" PVCs. This is physiological anxiety, not emotional. I was thrilled to record it as I have a doc. appt. tomorrow and can show it to him. Pulse rate was so high I had to adjust the report scale (PR) on the CMS50E oximeter software up to 175 to catch most of the data. Average was 106.6 for the five hours I caught.



I was on CPAP and O2 for the five hours but the attack wakes me up so I got up and watched CNBC. I fell okay other than normal concern when you heart is acting weird. In the past I have verified what I was feeling with a stethoscope I keep around for that reason. Hear rate and strength is very erratic. Blood pressure this am was 113/72 (I am usually ~130/90 and on Diovan HCT 320mg/12.5mg for it). My doc. will say, "Don't worry about it.", but should I be concerned?

Your doc may wanna review your meds and dosages with you if PAP therapy is now successful for you. PAP can change things, as the following quote shows:

"After 3 days of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, 15 of 22 subjects who were nondippers before treatment reversed to become dippers, and all subjects had significant reduction in their average BP during the day and night. Loss of dipping in patients with OSA is thought to be multifactorial, and involves direct effects of episodic hypoxemia and hypercapnia on chemoreceptors, activation of the sympathetic nervous system, altered cardiovascular homeostasis in response in marked fluctuation in intrathoracic pressure during obstructed breathing events, and generalized stress from sleep disruption." -- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... .6.772.pdf

[sdurbin]

Interesting, thanks. I should add:

Known Medical conditions:
Too many to list all; Spinal cord injury, Arachnoiditis (permanently disabled), foot-drop, Anti-Alpha Antitrypsin Deficiency MZ Phenotype, Diabetes, GERD (hiatal hernis), IBS, Vit. D deficient, Hypertension, High Cholesterol

Treatments:
Neurostimulator, Drugs (prescription), CPAP & O2 (since May 2010), TENS

[jnk]

If it was me, I'd take my BP first thing every morning before I got out of bed, and I would report those numbers to my doc.

Pain can mess with heart rate whether you "feel" the pain or not. That may be why the doc is telling you not to worry about it. Or not. Who's to say what's in his/her head? It's his/her job to explain if you ask, though, right?

I am not anti-med, but once a patient is breathing and sleeping at night, that patient, in my opinion, has a right to ask to have it proven to him again which meds he should keep taking and how much.

Sleep affects everything; everything affects sleep.

[Janknitz]

Have you ever done a 24 hour holter monitor for your heart?

I'd be curious to see what those episodes look like on EKG.

[M.D.Hosehead]

Janknitz is right about that; an ECG during an episode is diagnostic. Either it's an arrhythmia or it's just a fast heartbeat and pvc's. If you don't have episodes every day, there's a different apparatus called an "event monitor' that you turn on when you're having symptoms.

You sure do have a lot to deal with. Best wishes.

[sdurbin]

I just started making notes this year as an attack of this magnitude is so infrequent. Last nights episode ended an hour or two ago.

Anxiety Attacks
(shakes, rapid heart rate, physiological, no reason for fear)
_____________________________________Omron BP & Pulse___Oximeter
Date__________Time_________Glucose___BP_______Pulse_____SpO2____Pulse
2010 May 20____3:12 PM_______________96________133/89___88
2010 Jul. 1_____7:00 AM____________________________________________________Stress from appts.
2010 Sep. 15___9:30 AM_______125______Ded Bat.____________98______93-141____Heartbeat erratic on stethoscope and SpO2, Glucose was at 6:08 AM
2010 Oct. 4____10:30 PM______105______113/72____84________96_____106.6______Erratic heartbeat, feeling anxiety, see SpO2 report user_1_1_20101005065900.SpO2, heart beating normal but fast by Oct. 5, 1PM

Maybe six times a year? The infrequency is one reason I was excited to catch it. The oximeter data rate can display the waveform in a way that represents what I am feeling but the software does not zoom in to that level so I can't share that with the doc. Has anyone hacked the CMS50E data format so we could load it into Excel? As the docs. prescribe more electronic gadgets I have been able to get more data. I had to use underscore because my HTML code for a tab didn't work.

[sdurbin]

GP refused to look at the data. "I don't know about that stuff and I don't want to know about that stuff." He is more concerned with my diabetes and labs. He referred me to my Pulmonologist. I have an appointment with him coming up next month. There are some things I like about my GP and some things I don't. I have some more data to collect but I intend to post under another topic on my struggle with the Pulmonologist and the need for O2. I should have that data tonight or in the next couple nights. I got some great data last night. Should be interesting to some folks.

[sdurbin]

No, I looked. My software only has .SPO2 files. Example: user_1_1_20101006055722.SpO2

Maybe I don't have the right software? Mine is called SpO2 Assistant and came with the CMS50E.

[Jersey Girl]

I also have pvc's and get them at night after a very long day at work (12 hours or more). I spoke to my cardiologist about them. I now take atenelol in the a.m. and in the pm just to keep a steady beat all the time. I have been known to have arythmias - usually skipped beats, but get the pvc's due to being over tired. My cardiologist also told me that they were harmless, but certainly uncomfortable, so now I do the atenelol in the a.m. and in the pm and no more pvc's.

You might want to ask your cardiologist about them rather than your general practitioner or family doctor...

Best regards,

Jersey Girl

[sdurbin]

I downloaded the SpO2 and ApO2 Review software just now and it does not read the .SpO2 format. I will see if I can PM the file of interest to you.

[sdurbin]

I also have pvc's and get them at night after a very long day at work (12 hours or more). I spoke to my cardiologist about them. I now take atenelol in the a.m. and in the pm just to keep a steady beat all the time. I have been known to have arythmias - usually skipped beats, but get the pvc's due to being over tired. My cardiologist also told me that they were harmless, but certainly uncomfortable, so now I do the atenelol in the a.m. and in the pm and no more pvc's.

You might want to ask your cardiologist about them rather than your general practitioner or family doctor...

Best regards,

Jersey Girl

Hey Jersey Girl,

I still don't have a cardiologist and neither my GP or Pulmonologist seem to think I need a referral. This is part of my frustration with these people.

[M.D.Hosehead]

GP refused to look at the data. "I don't know about that stuff and I don't want to know about that stuff."

I have a problem with your doctors.

JG is right, PVC's are harmless. Atrial fibrillation is not. It's a cardiology question. It's not an emergency, but it is important to know which you have. Given the heat rate during that episode, and its duration, AF is very possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paroxysmal ... brillation

[sdurbin]

GP refused to look at the data. "I don't know about that stuff and I don't want to know about that stuff."

I have a problem with your doctors.

JG is right, PVC's are harmless. Atrial fibrillation is not. It's a cardiology question. It's not an emergency, but it is important to know which you have. Given the heat rate during that episode, and its duration, AF is very possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paroxysmal ... brillation

I have a lot of problems with my doctors!