Palpitations

Posted by Clay Hillary | December 22nd, 2009 in Palpitations | 1 Comment »

Palpitations

What’s this?

Palpitations are characterized by a feeling heart beat faster and / or less regular than usual. In taking the pulse, heart rate is actually increased.
This rhythm disturbance may occur in sick, as a symptom of the disease, but also among healthy subjects, although it reveals a pathology.

What are the causes?

They are very varied.
- It is normal to the effort by example, that the heart rate increases .- Same at a high emotional stress or sudden.
- Certain diseases, such as tachycardia, are characterized by palpitations.
Generally speaking, palpitations are due to a disruption of electrical impulses that regulate heart beats. These disturbances occur most often in the absence of heart disease and, therefore, no obvious explanation. They are however more frequent with increasing age and / or presence of hypertension.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms can vary from person to person. In most cases, we note:
- An impression of shots in the chest.
- The feeling of heart break.
- The tick tock more sustained and faster than usual.
- Sometimes chest pain, breathlessness or discomfort, or sweating.

How is it diagnosed?

- The diagnosis is made mainly through questions asked by the doctor and the clinical examination. Frequency, duration, method of installation (quick or gradual) palpitations … These are the points that the patient should clarify to inform the practitioner.
- A 24-hour electrocardiography may be performed, to analyze the heart rhythm during seizures. To do this, the patient is asked to wear a Holter for 24 h, which records the beating of his heart throughout the day.

What is the treatment?

Treatment depends on the cause of palpitations. If they are indicative of heart disease, we must treat the patient according to the pathology found.
In the absence of proven cause, the doctor may prescribe anti-arrhythmic but far from always the case. In most cases, palpitations are benign, the patient can live quite normally without special treatment.

What is evolution?

In no particular cause palpitations cause no damage and does not tire the heart, only the patient.

Who to consult?

- The doctor.
- A cardiologist.


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