What causes rapid heart rate with tightness in chest of a 14 year old?
Patient: I have a 14 year old girl that has a occasional fast heart beat. It suddenly starts and stops. Took her to ER, they ran EKG, xray and blood work said everything is normal. Now she has chest pains in the middle of her chest with some tightness. What is going on? Doctor: Hi,Increased heart rate and palpitations can have a lot of causes. It can be normal sinus tachycardia due to anxiety or stress or it could be abnormal supra ventricular tachycardia. For the diagnosis, you need to do ECG at the time of palpitation and tachycardia. If the duration of palpitations are short enough to reach a nearby hospital, we put a 24hr ECG monitoring (Holter Monitor). You also need to do a 2D Echo and thyroid function test to see for any associated abnormality if any.Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Thanks,Dr. Sameer Maheshwari