Medi-Help

How PCOD Can Affect You?

What is Palpitation?
Palpitation is a feeling of awareness of your own heart beat. 
It is usually described as heart rate being either too fast (racing), too slow or a sensation of missing a beat.

Types of palpitations?

Normal (Benign) 
These palpitations occur as a response to physical or mental stress like exercise, fever, pain, fear, anxiety etc. 
They are harmless and settle on their own once the precipitating factors disappear. They do not require any medical treatment.

Abnormal 
These palpitations occur due to some underlying abnormality in either the structure of heart or the beating of heart. 
These can be dangerous and at times life threatening. They may or may not settle on their own and require some medical treatment.

Warning signs that suggest palpitations are abnormal?
Palpitations are abnormal if they are associated with chest heaviness, chest pain, uneasiness, sweating, weakness, giddiness, feeling of black out, fainting, nausea, vomiting, seizures.
Palpitations are more likely to be abnormal In people who have some existing heart disease and these patients should report to their doctor at the earliest.

What to do during palpitations?
Call for help. (If u are alone avoid driving, use a taxi or auto) Go to your nearest hospital/doctor and try to get an ECG during the palpitations. If you are helping someone having palpitations, if they faint, call for help, start CPR if they remain unresponsive and take them to the nearest hospita

Which doctor can treat palpitations?
Doctors who specialise in the treatment of palpitations are called Electrophysiologists. 
They specialise in heart rhythm and are capable of performing a variety of complex tests to identify and treat different types of palpitations.

Which investigations are used to diagnose palpitations?
ECG - Taken during palpitations and when the patient is normal is a very helpful tool. 
Holter - Externally applied recorder which continuously records heart rhythm for 24 hrs. 
ELR - Extended looper recorder, is like holter, but it records rhythm for longer durations. 
ILR - Internal loop recorde is attached within the body for recording rhythm for long duration. 
EPS - Electrophysiology study, is the most sure shot test to diagnose, identify and treat 
palpitations.

What is EPS?
EPS stands for Electrophysiology study. By this test a trained electro-physiologist studies the conduction and formation system of heart beat, to understand the source, cause and type of palpitation. 
It is a simple and safe procedure of 2-3 hours and can be done as a day care procedure (by admitting the patient for a few hours in hospital, with discharge on same day).
It requires fasting for 4 hrs, some standard blood investigations and is done with local anaesthesia and if required it can be combined with treatment like ablation in the same sitting.

In the procedure electro-physiologist take catheters into your heart to study and stimulate the palpitations and understand them. Once found they can use various techniques to stop the palpitations, the techniques are called Ablation.

What are the treatment options available for palpitations?
There are many options depending upon the nature of palpitations and condition of the patient - 
Drug therapy 
Cardioversion - where either a drug or electric shock is given to stop palpitations immediately. 

Ablations using many sophisticated computer softwares 

Device Therapy like ICD (Internal cardiac defibrillator) 

Combination of all the above therapies.

Your Electrophysiologist and you as a team can make a choice about the options that will be best for you.

A heart attack is caused if the blood flow to the heart is obstructed. The disruption in the flow of blood destroys a part of the heart muscle and may prove to be fatal if not treated right on time.

Not every heart attack starts with a sudden crushing pain in the chest. In fact, about 30 per cent of the cases haven’t yielded any such symptom. However, the signs may vary from one person to another:

1. Heart attack might start slowly causing only mild discomfort or pain initially. The symptoms happen to be sudden and intense, persisting for several hours.
2. Mostly heart attack induces pain on the left side or the center of the chest. The discomfort generally persists for a few minutes. It can even result in a feeling of indigestion or heart burn, fullness, squeezing and pressure which can turn from mild to severe.
3. One might also experience an aching sensation in the upper stomach, jaw, neck, shoulders, back or both of the arms.
4. Shortness of breath is one of those very common symptoms.
5. Other common symptoms include excessive sweating, exhaustion, vomiting, nausea, sudden dizziness or light-heartedness.

How can you tell a heart attack from a mere panic attack?
Panic attack occurs even more suddenly and induces intense fear, extracting extreme reactions for something relatively harmless. Once the attack subsides, one usually feels week on the knees and tender near the gut. Some of the symptoms exclusive to a panic attack include a feeling of detachment, numbness, hot flashes, chills and tightness experienced in and around the throat, tremors (primarily of the hands) and a constant fear of losing control or of an impending danger.

Although many indications of a heart attack might happen to overlap with those of a panic attack, there are still a few noteworthy differences between the two. Watch out for those signs and get yourself diagnosed properly.