As you can see there are many different kinds of tachyarrythmias. It may look daunting at first, but we’ll take it one step (or arrythmia) at a time.
Diagnosis of Arrythmia
Before we can understand what the different arrythmias are, we first need to understand how to diagnose them.
On physical you should be able to pick up a fast or irregular rate and rhythm by checking the pulse and listening to the heart.
The next step after that is to look at the ECG, which can give you a more definitive answer (and we’ll find out how below). But often times, patients complain of palpitations, and when we go to look at the ECG, all is normal. This could simply be because they have episodes of palpitations and their heart slips into arrythmias on and off.
To get around this clinicians can provide portable ECG monitoring devices to patients. There are 2 main types:
- Event Monitor – When you have symptoms, you can hit a button to start the ECG, so that we have an ECG that we know is associated with the symptoms the patient is experiencing
- Loop Monitor – Records all the time but only keeps the last “x” minutes in memory when you press a button. Particularly useful for patients who experience fainting spells. When you start to feel pre-syncopal (feeling that you’re going to pass out), you can press a button, which instructs the device to store the ECG prior to and during your episode
Categorizing Arrythmias