[Jeff]

Betty had posted this in her profile, and I thought she would be better served if I posted this in the forum. For reference, she has a 6 year old boy who has had periods where his heart is racing, seemingly without cause. He's seen doctors and cardiologists in Romania (where they live), and has been diagnosed as having a ventricular pre-excitation syndrome. One doctor thinks he's fine and will suffer no ill effects, the other wants to do an ablation.

Understandably, Betty's nervous about the decision she has in front of her.

This is what Betty had posted:

HI Jeff, this is David's mother, Betty. Thank you very much for all your support and helpful advise. There are always more questions in my mind that I need to ask. But first I need to mention that so far David didn't have a very stressful period filming the TV show as his role is smaller and rarely did he film after 9 PM. But a cause of stress could possibly be the fact that he went to school at the age of 5 (in my country first grade starts at the age of 7), now being already a second grader? I really think school is very tiring for him, and he practically started feeling worse after the first grade. Another question is that do you think this disease will improve or dissappear as he grows up or you think it will develop? Thank you so much dear Jeff! I am looking forward to receiving an answer soon. Sincerely, Betty

[Jeff]

Hi Betty,

Other than my experience of being a parent of a (almost) 5 year old girl and 2 year old boy, I'm outside of my area of expertise.

I don't know how many hours a day your son is working on the set, or if he even works every day on the set, but it sounds like he's got a very full schedule. Attending school two years ahead of schedule and working as an actor sounds like a lot to me.

I know that for my daughter, though she is excited at the prospect of playing with other girls at her pre-school, it is also very draining for her, too. Her mind is always running and she's always been a terrible sleeper, and so when you add school to her schedule, I think she just gets overwhelmed. Sleep becomes more erratic, her behavior changes. And that's for someone attending schooling for kids her age.

I would think that your son is probably the smallest boy in class, and though he must be bright to be in an advanced class, he may not be as emotionally developed as the other kids in his class, and that may be a source of stress, too.

And I know I've said this many times, but I'll say it again. I'm not a doctor. I'm just a parent and a person that has invested a lot of time and some money into researching heart issues. Everything I just said might be completely wrong.

But it does seem possible that the cause of all of his symptoms is his body reacting to all of the external stimuli he's receiving.

I hope that helps.

Jeff

[Jeff]

It means the ventricles are getting the electrical signal to contract earlier than they should. The AV node serves the purpose of slowing the conduction of the signal down so the atria can pump blood into the ventricles before the ventricles get the signal to contract. In his case, that signal is getting to his ventricles just a tiny bit early.

This can be a sign that there is an accessory pathway that is conducting the signal faster than the normal method, through the AV node. Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and LGL syndromes are arrhythmia that include a shortened PR interval as a clue to their presence.

But it's only 1/100th of a second outside normal parameters for someone his age. Normal for someone his age is .09-.17 and he's at .08 from what I measured on his ECG.

[bettybaiu]

Thank you very much Jeff! I don't know what I can do do make his life a bit easier (he films only two or three times a month but has to learn the roles in the mean time). Now he is already a second grader and in this stage I think it's impossible for me to take him out of school. They're program is from 8 AM to 11:45 AM, and then he spends other two hours for homework. I thought it would be tiring but still 100 days of vacation didn't improve his condition. I will try to reduce his homework time to only one hour a day and free weekends. It would be interesting if you could suggest me what else could I do to eliminate or to reduce stress in his life. Thank you so much once again! I am very grateful, by the way, great site Jeff. Sicerely, Betty

[Jeff]

Hi Betty -

Hmm. Now that I've read your recent post I may change my mind. If he's felt the same way all through his summer vacation, and school is only a few hours a day (in the United States second graders attend school for approximately 7 hours a day).

You might consider still having your son get a Holter monitor (24 or 48 hour monitor) and a full blood test to check red blood cell count, white blood cell count, glucose levels, liver function, kidney function, electrolyte levels.

But to make things less stressful - does he have any hobbies he can spend time on, or friends he can visit and play with?