lyme and heart issues

[smartyjones]

does anyone know info about lyme and heart issues? is there a connection like rheumatic fever and strep with lyme and heart issues?

thanks

[laure]

does anyone know info about lyme and heart issues? is there a connection like rheumatic fever and strep with lyme and heart issues?

thanks

 

Yes, absolutely. My brother was being treated for tachychardia and hyper thyroid and was rushed to the ER twice by ambulance because of extremely high heart rate that would not resolve (220). Then he discovered lyme. After aggressive treatment for 6 months he is totally better now, no other conditions at all.

[norcalmom]

Lyme carditis. Google it or Lyme mycocarditis. Cunningham even mentions it in one of her papers - I think is was a Cam K and heart related paper, not a pandas paper, don't recall exactly.

[tpotter]

Very interesting. I went in for a chest xray (to rule out pneumonia,) and they found a mild myocarditis! I'll have to mention it to our LLMD. BTW...I didn't test 100% positive for Lyme (on the WB), but was diagnosed clinically by the LLMD. Everything is appearing more and more like he was right (I'm currently on 2 abx...1 for Mycop, which was my first diagnosed symptom.)

[smartyjones]

tpotter -- pls keep me informed what the LLMD says! thanks.

 

did the LLMD send you for the chest X-ray or another dr? if another, what did they say about it?

 

 

[norcalmom]

just came across this while researching somehting:

A small proportion of individuals may not develop EM, or may fail to recognize or report the skin rash. In such patients, the disease may progress to its disseminated form. Most often, the disseminated form involves the heart, nervous system and joints.

Cardiac manifestations of Lyme disease occur in less than 10% of patients (8). Typically, cardiac involvement leads to impaired conduction to the atrioventricular node, resulting in arrhythmias, heart block and syncopal episodes. Although more extensive myocarditis has been described, significant myocardial dysfunction is uncommon.

 

from Canadian paper:

http://www.aldf.com/pdf/Laboratory_Diagnosis_of_Lyme_disease,_Canadian_Lab_Pub_Health.pdf

[Suzan]

My dd8 has a PVC (premature ventricular contraction) which developed in 2005. The heart specialist has declared it safe but I hope it resolves with lyme treatment.

 

 

Pediatric cardiac involvement with Lyme disease

Michael B. Alpert, MD, FAAP, FACC

 

Lyme carditis: literature reports 3:1 - male : female ; the author

believes it is the reverse.

 

10% of kids with Lyme have cardiac involvement

 

Electocardiogram abnormalities described were: first, second, and third

degree heart block, right bundle branch block, premature ventricular

contractions (seeing more an more of this ), abnormal polarization (inverted

T wave)

 

Symptoms: chest pain, palpitations, irregular heart beat, low heart rates

 

Chest pain from: (1) costochondritis which isn't very responsive to

antiinflammatory treatment but does improve with antibiotic treatment; (2)

myocarditis which can be serious and cause death; (3) unexplained

 

Palpatation: (1) supraventricular tachycardia which is not well controlled

unless Lyme is treated; (2) unexplained

 

Irregular heart beat: (1) premature ventricular contractions; (2)

premature atrial contractions; (3) unexplained

 

Slow heart rate; (1) complete heart block; (2) sinus bradycardia