Digoxin, a prescription medication known by the brand names Lanoxin or Digitek, treats heart failure and dysrhythmias. Because many factors can cause digoxin to accumulate to toxic levels, patients taking this medication need regular check-ups to...
It is very common for people to get palpitations. The term covers a myriad of conditions which can range from irregular or fast heartbeats to cardiac emergencies. As a practicing cardiologist, I hear patients from age 15-95 describe symptoms...
Supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT, is an abnormally fast heartbeat that occurs suddenly. It is triggered in the atria, or upper chambers, of the heart. People with SVT feel as if their heart is pounding out of their chest. Cardiac arrhythmias...
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is a condition characterized by rapid heartbeats that originate in the upper chamber of the heart. The focus of this arrhythmia usually is electrical fibers that are sending electrical impulses at rates faster or...
The human heart is a complex electrical organ with its own switch-like pacemaker and “wiring.” Your heart rate is influenced by a variety of factors, including impulses from your nervous system and alterations in the levels of...
A normal heartbeat, the electrical impulses that cause the heart muscle to contract in a specific sequence, pushes the blood through the heart with two adjoining pumps, one in the atrium and one in the ventricle. SVT, or supraventricular...
An irregular heartbeat, medically referred to as an arrhythmia, is common during pregnancy. Approximately 50 percent of pregnant women experience some kind of irregularity in their heart rhythm, according to Cleveland Clinic. Most of these cases...
Adenosine is a medication used to treat extremely high heart rates. The most common heart rate that adenosine is used for is called supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT. According to the American Heart Association, heart rates that fall into this...
To determine an infant’s vital signs, health-care providers check a pulse rate. A pulse tells how fast the heart is beating and if it is in a normal rhythm. Babies have the fastest pulse rate right after birth, and it will continue to slow...
When a child says that his heart is racing, more than likely he is experiencing an arrhythmia, or an abnormal deviation of the regular heart rate. When it is a fast heart rate, it is called tachycardia. Although most commonly benign, tachycardia...
The heart consists of four chambers: the two upper chambers known as the atria and the two lower chambers known as the ventricles. The right and left side of the heart are separated by a wall known as the septum; blood flows between the chambers...
There are several heart disorders that involve an abnormal rate -- the heart may beat slower or faster than normal. The heart can also have various irregular rhythms. PSVT, or paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, is a disorder where the heart...
The pulse rate, or number of times per minute the heart beats, is determined by your child's size, age and level of activity. You can measure the pulse quickly and easily on different areas of the body using different techniques. A pulse rate that...
The heart normally beats between 60 and 100 beats per minute when a person is at rest, according to MayoClinic.com. Tachycardia, or rapid heartbeat, has many different causes. A rapid heartbeat can originate from different parts of the heart. Some...
