AboutDavid Richardson Expertise Adult heart function and disease. Not very good about children lesss than 12. Hypertension is o.k. Heart rhythm a special interest.
Experience Certified in cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Was chairman of division of cardiology at the Medical College of Virginia. Am now mostly retired.
Organizations Fellow of American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology and member of American Physiological Society..
Publications Circulation, American Heart Journal, Hypertension.
Education/Credentials M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Residency training at Yale Uhniversity School of Medicine and Medical College of Virginia.
Awards and Honors Gold Heartt Award from American Heart Association in 1995.
Question Hello David,
I had an ECG on Tuesday as part of a pre op assessment. I'm due to have varicose vein surgery in a months time.
I have had a feeling for a while that I might have something wrong with my heart and I felt nervous about having the operation because of this. I have no clear symptoms that I've noticed, except on about 4 occasions in the past year I've had some tightness around my voicebox area extending a bit to my left jaw and shoulder. The longest of these episodes lasted about 20 minutes and I felt I had to sit down. I mentioned this at the assessment so was sent for an ECG.
The results (that I read on the print out - they weren't discussed with me) were -
unusual P axis, possible ectopic atrial bradycardia with undertermined rhythmn irregularity.
PR - 158 ms
QRS - 94
OT/QTC - 416/375
PRT - 33 76 39
Vent - 49
I am 37, in good health (apart from varicose veins), had pleurisy when I was 21, have smoked from 18-30, then from 35 until this March. I recently trained for a 10km run and didn't notice any particular difficulties with breathing when running (and completed the race fater than expected). I have good energy levels and take regular, moderate exercise.
I plan to see my GP to ask about what to do next, and imagine the hospital would also contact me to discuss, but would be interested in your opinion at this point. I'm a psychiatric nurse so covered some general medicine in my training, but am not managing to find out much about my results from my own searches.
Many thanks,
Cath
Answer Dear Cath,
Nothing about your ECG report weighs against varicose vein or any surgery. The direction of the P waves is unusual and does suggest that the pacemaker is in a slightly unusual position. That's what led the computer to suggest ectopic (out of place) atrial bradycardia. Undetermined rhythm irregularity is no help, If you wish, send me your email address and I'll send instructions about how to get the ECG to me as an attachment to email or by fax or by snailmail. At any rate, your ECG is o.k. for surgery, and your excellent exercise ability means you should do fine.
