Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia (PSVT)

PSVT is a common arrhythmia that occurs among all age groups in both ambulatory and inpatient settings. Although most patients with PSVT are symptomatic in some way from this arrhythmia (with lightheadedness, awareness of rapid heart beat or palpitations), hemodynamic compromise is usually not seen if the patient is otherwise healthy and does not have underlying heart disease. In contrast, sudden development of this arrhythmia is much more likely to be consequential when it occurs in older patients, in very young children, or adults with significant...

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Ventricular Arrhythmias

 Ventricular arrhythmias are a broad category of conditions that include premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), ventricular tachycardia, accelerated idioventricular rhythm, torsades de pointes, ventricular flutter and fibrillation. Premature Ventricular Contractions. Prudent medical practice dictates that therapy for PVCs be based on "the company they keep". They are common in the general population, and if no heart disease is present, they are generally benign. Accompanying conditions that increase catecholamine levels, as well as hypoxia,...

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What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol has been a favourite theme on the airwaves fpr the past 30 years, and mostly it seems to get a pretty harsh press. The main risk associated with high cholesterol is coronary heart disease (CHD). This is caused by blood vessels becoming narrowed with fatty deposits called plaques, which cholesterol contributes to. The narrowed blood vessels reduce blood flow to the heart. This can result in angina [chest pain) or, if the vessel is blocked completely, a heart attack. Based on information...

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What is a Heart Disease?

     A pedant would say that heart disease is a disease of the heart; but there are hundreds of them, most with complex names - myocarditis, pericarditis, ventricular hypertrophy, Woff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, to name but four.      However, the big daddy, the one that kills most people, is not truly a disease of the heart at all. It is a disease of the arteries that supply blood to the heart, and is usually called atherosclerosis. 'Athero; or 'atheroma;...

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Valvular Heart Disease

About valvular heart disease Valvular heart disease is the name given to any dysfunction or abnormality of one or more of the heart’s four valves, including the mitral valve and aortic valve on the left side, and the tricuspid valve and pulmonic valve on the right side. In a normally functioning heart, the four valves (flaps made of tissue) keep blood flowing in one direction and only at the right time. They act as gates that swing open to allow blood to flow through and then tightly shut...

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the Signs of a Woman’s Heart Attack

Heart disease is currently the number one cause of death in postmenopausal women; more women die of heart disease than of lung cancer or breast cancer. Half of all North Americans who die from heart attacks each year are women. But heart disease doesn’t refer only to heart attacks; it includes strokes as well as a whole gamut of problems caused by poor circulation, known in clinical circles as peripheral vascular disease, or more plainly, “blood circulation disease.” Peripheral vascular...

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Heart Failure

Epidemiology Heart failure, defined as an impairment that prevents the heart from adequately perfusing body tissues to meet metabolic demands, is a major health problem that affects between 2 and 3 million Americans. With 400,000 new cases of HF diagnosed annually, the cost to the U.S. health care system is considerable, since HF is the primary reason for an estimated 1 million hospitalizations per year. In 1990, HF was responsible for approximately $10 billion in direct (e.g., hospitalization)...

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