Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffArrhythmias may not cause any signs or symptoms. In fact, your doctor might find you have an arrhythmia before you do, during a routine examination.
Some people do have noticeable arrhythmia symptoms, which may include:
- A fluttering in your chest
- A racing heartbeat (tachycardia)
- A slow heartbeat (bradycardia)
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath
- Lightheadedness
- Dizziness
- Fainting (syncope) or near fainting
Noticeable signs and symptoms don't always indicate a serious problem. Some people who feel arrhythmias don't have a serious problem, while others who have life-threatening arrhythmias have no symptoms at all.
When to see a doctor
Arrhythmias may cause you to feel premature heartbeats, or you may feel that your heart is racing or beating too slowly. Other signs and symptoms may be related to reduced blood output from your heart. These include shortness of breath or wheezing, weakness, dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting or near fainting, and chest pain or discomfort. Seek urgent medical care if you suddenly or frequently experience any of these signs and symptoms at a time when you wouldn't expect to feel them.
Ventricular fibrillation is one type of arrhythmia that is deadly. It occurs when the heart beats with rapid, erratic electrical impulses. This causes pumping chambers in your heart (the ventricles) to quiver uselessly, instead of pumping blood. Without an effective heartbeat, blood pressure plummets, cutting off blood supply to your vital organs. A person with ventricular fibrillation will collapse within seconds and soon won't be breathing or have a pulse. If this occurs, follow these steps:
- Call 911 or the emergency number in your area.
- If you or someone nearby knows cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), begin providing it if it's needed. CPR can help maintain blood flow to the organs until an electrical shock (defibrillation) can be given.
Portable defibrillators, which can deliver an electric shock that may restart heartbeats, are available in an increasing number of places, such as airplanes, police cars and shopping malls. They can even be purchased for your home. Portable defibrillators come with built-in instructions for their use. They're programmed to allow a shock only when appropriate.
- The heart's electrical system: Working and not. American Heart Association. http://americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=34. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Heart rhythm disorders. Heart Rhythm Society. http://www.hrsonline.org/PatientInfo/HeartRhythmDisorders/index.cfm. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Long QT syndrome. Heart Rhythm Society. http://www.hrsonline.org/PatientInfo/HeartRhythmDisorders/IDisorders/index.cfm. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Atrial flutter. Heart Rhythm Society. http://www.hrsonline.org/PatientInfo/HeartRhythmDisorders/AFlutter/index.cfm. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Sick sinus syndrome. Heart Rhythm Society. http://www.hrsonline.org/PatientInfo/HeartRhythmDisorders/SSS/index.cfm. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Mehra R, et al. Association of nocturnal arrhythmias with sleep-disordered breathing: The Sleep Heart Health Study. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 2006;173:910.
- Diagnosing arrhythmias. American Heart Association. http://americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Arrhythmia medications. American Heart Association. http://americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=18. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Ablative techniques. American Heart Association. http://americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=6. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Brodsky MA, et al. A history of heart failure predicts arrhythmia treatment efficacy: Data from the Antiarrythmics versus Implantable Defibrillators (AVID) Study. American Heart Journal. 2006;152:724.
- Henry L, et al. The Maze procedure: A surgical intervention for ablation of atrial fibrillation. Heart & Lung: The Journal of Acute and Critical Care. 2008;37:432.
- Pacemaker. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/pace/pace_all.html. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Arnsdorf MF, et al. General principles of the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Oct. 14, 2008.
