Treating Cardiac Arrhythmias.

Heart palpitations -- an unusual awareness of the heartbeat -- is an extremely common symptom. Most people who complain of palpitations describe them either as “skips” in the heartbeat (that is, a pause, often followed by a particularly strong beat,) or as periods of rapid and irregular heartbeats.
While many people with palpitations can ignore them, others find them extremely disturbing and frightening, and often worry that they are about to die at any moment. Fortunately, the vast majority of palpitations are not associated with life threatening heart rhythm disturbances.
When a patient complains to a doctor about palpitations, it becomes the doctor’s obligation to do two things: a) identify the cause of the palpitations, and b) provide optimal treatment for that cause.

The Various Types of Cardiac Arrhythmias

While there are many types of cardiac arrhythmias, they can be divided into four general groups, which you can read about here:

"extra" heart beats, known as premature atrial complexes (PACs) or premature ventricular complexes (PVCs)

bradycardias, or arrhythmias that make the heart rhythm too slow

tachycardias, or arrhythmias that make the heart rhythm too fast. One of the most common tachyarrhythmias is atrial fibrillation.

disorders affecting the bundle branches, referred to as bundle branch block, or BBB. While BBB is not strictly a cardiac arrhythmia (since it's not really the heart rhythm, but instead the pattern of conduction of the electrical signal that is disordered in BBB), cardiologists usually lump it in with the heart rhythm disturbances, so we will do the same.

Heart rhythm problem.

It's with you your entire life, yet you probably don't notice it much: your heartbeat. When normal, the heartbeat is nice and regular, and has just the right rate. But when things aren't quite right -- when the heartbeat is too fast or too slow, or just too irregular -- it's known as a cardiac arrhythmia (heart rhythm problem), which is among the most common of the heart disorders.

Most people, in fact, have occasional cardiac arrhythmias. The significance of cardiac arrhythmias can vary tremendously. Many arrhythmias are completely benign and inconsequential, while others are extremely dangerous and life-threatening. Here you will find an overview on heart rhythm problems, including the types of heart arrhythmias, the symptoms they cause, how they are evaluated, and how they are treated.