can abnormal heart rhythms be detected with weekly fetal monitoring?

Question

I went at 16 weeks and they had trouble finding the fetus heart beat is this normal or should I be worried I bought a heartbeat monitor & nothing ($24?

Answer 1

Yes: Weekly fetal heart monitoring is usually done for other reasons, like diabetes. Sometimes an abnormal heart rate is detected. Most of the time these are not significant.

Answer 2

Often: If the arrhythmia is intermittent, it may be difficult to detect with weekly monitoring. Most of the significant fetal arrhythmias are sustained and should be detected by an examination that includes an assessment of fetal heart rate and rhythm.

Answer 3

Variable: Some defects like small ventriculoseptal defects close all by themselves and require no intervention, others like hypoplastic left heart require transplant. Unfortunately how you manage the defect depends upon the exact nature of the disease.

Answer 4

Get Good Advice: The best way to help manage a heart birth defect is to first identify the problem. Then seek advice from a qualified pediatrician or if more complicated, a pediatric cardiologist. Some heart birth defects actually disappear with age. Some are permanent, but harmless. Others require more intense therapy or even surgery.Your doctor can guide you.

Answer 5

Educate yourself: Because there is a wide range of heart defects, the best thing you can do to manage your child's defect is to learn as much about it as possible. Your child's pediatric cardiologist can inform you about what to look for as signs that your baby may be having more trouble and may need to see the doctor. Learn about the baby's medications, and if surgery is needed learn about it before it happens.

Answer 6

Develop a logbook: One of the best things one of my patients mom's did over the years was develop a log book.In it she always had detailed information about each physician involved in her daughters care.There were updated schematics of what the heart defect was, and what shunt/repairs were in place. There were med lists and when started/stopped. The other data was always quite helpful when I needed to review it.

Answer 7

All of the above: The answers you have received are very helpful. The specific care depends on the heart condition your child has; I would leave that to your child's cardiologist. But educating yourself and creating a log book can be especially helpful.

Answer 8

Event recorder: In order to be certain, a recording at the time is symptoms is necessary. Depending upon the frequency of the symptoms, there are different types of recorders/ monitors that are available.

Answer 9

Arrhythmia: There is a whole panoply of recording devices that can record cardiac rhythm for hours, days or even weeks to try and catch an arrhythmia.

Answer 10

Yes: Fainting had many causes, some could be related to arrhythmia ( fast or slow heart beats) or could be due to low blood pressure or other neurologic causes. Ask your doctor for event monitor if you have a recurrent unexplained fainting, this will try to correlate your fainting spells with any abnormality in the heart beats and then you can determine if arrhythmia is the cause of fainting.

Answer 11

No: A simple pulmonary function test is not an exercise test requiring running or biking. It is just recording breathing volumes during normal breathing and forced expiration.

Answer 12

No: In more than 30 years of pulmonary medicine i've never heard of a heart attack occurring during pulmonary function tests.

Answer 13

Highly unlikely!: I have never heard of implants impairing a physicians ability to evaluate a cardiac murmur under normal conditions.

Answer 14

No: There should be no interference.

Answer 15

Rarely: If the implants are really large and your murmur very quiet it might be possible, but this one is very unlikely.. :).

Answer 16

Unlikely.: Good question but i think it would be very unlikely that breast implants would interfere with detection of a heart murmur.

Answer 17

No: Interesting and good question. While it makes sense to think that the implants could interfere with heart auscultation it is not likely as the implants are highly mobile and if needed they can be displaced enough to listen to all hear sounds. Good question though.

Answer 18

Major life event: Heart surgery brings one to recognize one's vunerability and some react with fear and depression - can be treated with medications. Others react with a positive change in their attitude towards loved ones and life generally.

can abnormal heart rhythms be detected with weekly fetal monitoring?

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