When you have a heartbeat that’s too fast or irregular, Dr. Smith may opt to perform a medical procedure known as cardioversion. In this procedure, electric shocks are delivered to your heart. This will usually restore normal rhythm. Here’s some more information about cardioversion. Why is this needed? Tachycardia (heart beats too fast), atrial fibrillation […]
Don’t Have An Aversion To Cardioversion Read More »
Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are extra heartbeats that begin in one of the heart’s two lower pumping chambers, the ventricles. Because these extra beats disrupt your heart’s normal rhythm, PVCs can cause you to feel as if your heart just fluttered or skipped a beat. In this case, that’s not a sign of true love,
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For some patients, Dr. Smith may feel it’s best to simply manage the arrhythmia, rather than performing more dramatic treatments such as cardiac ablation. This is known as medical management, and it usually involves placing the patient on a cardiovascular medications. Here are the four basic categories he will prescribe. Beta blockers— Beta blockers decrease
Sometimes Medical Management Is Best Read More »
Atrial fibrillation (Afib) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. Around 2.7 million Americans have some degree of Afib. For these patients, Dr. Smith’s first option for therapy is usually medication. If medication can’t get the heart back into normal rhythm, the next step is catheter ablation. This is usually effective for patients with intermittent arrhythmia,
If At First You Don’t Succeed — Convergent Therapy Read More »
If your heart has an arrhythmia, it has a problem with the rhythm, kind of like that uncle who’ll be dancing when Mariah Carey comes on Spotify at your upcoming family holiday party. With your heart, arrhythmia makes it beat too quickly (tachycardia) or too slowly (bradycardia). We’ve discussed all sorts of different aspects of
Different Strokes For Different Folks Read More »
The human heart is a miracle of enduring operation and consistency. But in some people it’s actually over-engineered. These people suffer from a condition known as Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW). When a person has Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome their heart actually has an extra electrical pathway between the upper and lower chambers. This is a congenital condition, and
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Dr. Smith is a cardiac electrophysiologist, giving him extensive training, expertise, and experience treating arrhythmias and heart disorders. Many of the issues he deals with are due to malfunctions in the patient’s electrical system. So you better understand what happens, it helps to understand the basic electrical system in the human heart. Normal heart Our
The Electrical System Is Key to Normal Rhythm Read More »
If someone says Watchman, if you’re a comic book fan you may think he or she is talking about the DC Comics superheroes. But if you have atrial fibrillation, there’s another Watchman you need to know about — the Watchman Implant. Dr. Smith implants the Watchman device into the left atria of the heart of
Would Watchman Help You? Read More »
When examining your heart, Dr. Smith uses various diagnostic tools. An important one is called the ejection fraction, and it refers to the amount, or percentage, of blood that is pumped out of the ventricles with each contraction. Here’s some more information about the ejection fraction. How it works With each heartbeat, your heart squeezes
These Fractions Weren’t in High School Math Read More »
An occasional period of an abnormal heart rhythm is not rare and usually isn’t serious. Many adults have had some rhythm problem, whether due to too much caffeine, stress, or other issues. The feelings may be of your heart racing, a feeling of lightheadedness or dizziness. But certain heart rhythms can be serious, potentially even
Some Signs to Watch For with Abnormal Heart Rhythms Read More »
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