Heart & Vascular:
Conditions

An arrhythmia is an abnormal heartbeat rhythm. Arrhythmias happen when the heart beats too fast, too slow or beats irregularly, such as atrial fibrillation, the most common arrhythmia in the U.S.

Most arrhythmias are harmless. It’s common to feel your heart “skip” a beat or speed up when you’re afraid, excited or exercising. Too much caffeine and certain medications also can cause heart palpitations.

When irregular heartbeats are frequent or chronic, they can be serious — and sometimes life threatening. If your heart can’t pump enough blood to the body, it can damage the brain and other organs. Arrhythmias can lead to symptoms like shortness of breath or chest pain. They’re most commonly caused by heart disease, abnormal heart valve function or heart failure.

If your heart beats too fast, it’s called tachycardia. If your heart beats too slow, it’s called bradycardia. Common arrhythmias include atrial fibrillation, ventrical fibrillation, AV node re-entry tachycardia and Wolffe-Parkinson-White Syndrome.

Our arrhythmia treatment program is among the most comprehensive and innovative options for heart rhythm disorders in the country. Our cardiac heart rhythm specialists, called electrophysiologists, rank among world’s leaders in cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). They’ve performed more cardiac ablation procedures than anyone in the southeast – more than 5,000 per year.

We are pioneers in shaping arrhythmia treatment options. As primary and principal investigators for national clinical trials, we’ve participated in many atrial fibrillation (A-fib, AF) and atrial flutter (a-flutter) studies with multiple catheters and energy sources. Our ongoing clinical trials feature new pacemakers, defibrillators and ablation catheters, as well as new ways to use existing devices. In fact, we’re the only center in Georgia participating in a trial that provides alternatives to blood thinners to prevent stroke in patients with A-fib.

Diagnosing arrhythmia involves many factors, including a careful history of your health. If you have an arrhythmia, you may not feel any symptoms, or you may report symptoms that can seem unrelated to the heart, like dizziness, fainting or shortness of breath. Medications, diseases (including thyroid problems), diet and stress can cause some arrhythmias.

If you are having or have recently had heart palpitations, a racing heart or any other heart disturbances that concern you, please call Emory HealthConnection at 404-778-7777 to schedule your screening appointment.

Our arrhythmia specialists take these factors into account and conduct tests, including:

• Echocardiogram
• Holter Monitoring
• Event Recorder
• Tilt Table Test
• Electrophysiology (EP) Study

Our team of electrophysiologists performs the following electrophysiology services and procedures:

• Cardioversion
• Diagnostic EP studies
• Catheter ablation of arrhythmias
• Loop recorder implantations and monitoring
• Pacemaker and ICD implants and follow-up
• Resynchronization therapy for heart failure
• Tilt-table testing
• Transtelephonic arrhythmia monitoring