Dear all,

I have a question, as we all know ectopic beats are harmless (well physically anyway) in most cases.

I was driving along today, and slightly stressed started to have a panic attack. During this time my heart rate probably doubled, (I could feel the pounding in my head) I then had a number of ectopic beats, and because I could feel the pounding, i could feel the momentary pause. Now like most of us here, part of me was thinking FFS while the other OMG i am going to die

My question to all, and RLR if he around is - Can Ectopic Beats/PVC's/PAC's during a rapid heart rate be dangerous, or are these benign independent of heart rate.

Dear RLR

Thank you for the reply, through certain medical testing (an echocardiogram and a number of ECGs, I know that my heart is healthy. I have recently started being anxious again, I should add that for the last 10 months I have been relatively anxiety free, and thus hardly any palpitations occured. I know in my non-panic attack mind that I am fine.

When I was driving on Sunday night, I had a panic attack, and thus my heart rate increased. I was just a bit concerned if having skipped beats when the heart rate was elevated to say around 150bpm would be dangerous. I am pretty sure though that the reason the skipped beats felt worse, was because my heart rate was very fast, and thus they felt more pronounced, i.e. the momentary pauses in between a fast heart rate, felt more disconcerting than when I normally have skipped beats which is when at rest and thus heart rate slower. In terms of what I feel during a palpitation it may be either a thud in the chest/throat, a feeling of the chest/throat being pressed, or the skipped beat feeling

I am pretty sure I know the answer, but I just wanted reassurance, that skipped beats during a fast heart rate during a panic attack in a structurally normal heart are as benign as when at rest with a heart rate of 70-80 bpm.

I hope you can reply to this again, and put my normally logical mind at ease.

Regards

27pence

(FFS is not an acronym relating to medical issues, it is a rude way of saying "for crying out loud, why are these stupid ectopics happening again")

I've had nasty palps with my heart rate in the 170s-180s, both running and playing squash.

Normally, I just plough on, but I do remember stepping off a treadmill once during a particularly bad episode. It was just too disconcerting.

I've always taken the attitude that if you're doing competitive sport, then there are risks attached (though there is evidence to suggest that the risks associated with extreme exertion are compensated for by the fitness gains accrued - because obviously one lives most of one's life at relatively low levels of exertion). But the risks are pretty small - certainly less than associated with smoking, for example - and actually given that we've all got to die sometime, dying suddenly doing something one loves, isn't a bad way to go (albeit not much fun for anybody around at the time).

I guess I should say that the stuff about risk doesn't really apply if you're just exercising within normal parameters (assuming absence of underlying condition, etc). I am talking about competitive sport, where you're deliberately pushing yourself to the max.