ARRHYTHMIA
Electrical impulses cause the normal heart to beat 60 to 100 times a minute. These impulses come from a natural pacemaker deep inside the heart muscle. Each impulse causes the heart muscle to contract. This action causes the blood to flow through the heart and out to the tissues and organs of your body.
An arrhythmia is a change from the normal speed or pattern of these electrical impulses. This can cause the heart to beat too fast (tachycardia); or too slow (bradycardia); or in an unsteady pattern (irregular rhythm). Some people can feel an arrhythmia as a skipped, fast, pounding, or irregular beating. Others may feel the arrhythmia as weakness, shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, or fainting.
Arrhythmias can be prevented. The cause and type of arrhythmia determines the best treatment to use. Monitoring your heart rate over a 24-hour period or longer, can help the doctor know the cause of your arrhythmia and choose the best treatment. This can be done with a Holter monitor—a portable EKG recording device attached by wires to your chest. You carry this with you as you perform your routine activities during the monitoring period.
Arrhythmias are most often due to heart disease such as:
-
Coronary artery disease (arteriosclerosis)
-
Disease of the heart valves
-
Enlarged heart
-
High blood pressure
-
Congestive heart failure (CHF)
Persons without heart disease can also have an arrhythmia caused by:
-
Certain medicines (such as asthma inhalers and decongestants)
-
Some herbal supplements
-
Cardiac stimulant drugs (such as cocaine, amphetamine, diet pills, certain decongestant cold medicines, caffeine, and nicotine)
-
Excessive alcohol use
-
Medical conditions such as thyroid disease, anemia, anxiety, and panic disorder
HOME CARE:
-
Avoid cardiac stimulants (such as cocaine, amphetamine, diet pills, certain decongestant cold medicines, caffeine, and nicotine).
-
If you smoke, stop smoking. Contact your doctor or a local stop-smoking program for help.
-
Tell your doctor about any prescription, over-the-counter or herbal medicines you take. These may be affecting your heart rhythm.
FOLLOW UP with your doctor or as advised by our staff. If a Holter monitor has been recommended, contact the cardiologist you have been referred to as soon as you can pick up the device. Other outpatient tests may also be arranged for you at that time.
[NOTE: If you had an X-ray or EKG (cardiogram), it will be reviewed by a specialist. You will be notified of any new findings that may affect your care.]
GET PROMPT MEDICAL ATTENTION if any of the following occur:
-
Weakness, dizziness, lightheadedness, or fainting
-
Chest, shoulder, arm, neck, or back pain
-
Shortness of breath
-
Rapid heart rate (over 120 beats per minute, at rest)
-
Palpitations (the sense that your heart is fluttering or beating fast or hard or irregularly)
-
Difficulty with speech or vision, weakness of an arm or leg
-
Swelling of the ankles
