Heart Rhythm

Hearts should have normal rhythm to their beats, but when these beats are out of synch, it causes inefficient pumping of blood. Irregular heart arrhythmias occur when the electrical signals that coordinate the heart's beats do not work properly. This can cause beats that are too fast (tachycardia), or too slow (bradycardia). Tachycardias include atrial fibrillation (AFib), supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, and ventricular tachycardia (VT). Bradycardias include sick sinus syndrome and conduction block. Electrophysiology arrhythmia treatments include medications, life style changes, and the EP lab interventions of catheter ablation, and implantable pacemakers or defibrillators.

Phone app connects CPR-certified locals to nearby cardiac arrests

Officials in Clark County, Indiana, are urging locals to download a new phone app that would alert CPR-certified individuals to cardiac arrests happening nearby. An accompanying app also maps out the county’s nearest automated external defibrillators.

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Boston Children’s criteria IDs kids at risk for arrhythmias during stress tests

Clinically significant arrhythmias are rare during exercise stress tests (ESTs) in pediatric heart patients, researchers reported in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, but those most at risk for life-threatening events can be identified from a set of predefined risk factors like cardiomyopathy and ventricular dysfunction.

Catheter ablation safer than surgery for paroxysmal or early persistent AFib

Catheter ablation was associated with better arrhythmia-free survival and lower complication rates than surgical ablation in patients with paroxysmal or early-onset persistent atrial fibrillation (AFib), according to a small, randomized study published in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology.

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Purdue introduces cardiology’s latest wearable: A paper-thin, plant-based sticker

A team at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, announced progress on its latest cardiology wearable: a plant-based, stretchable wrist sticker that has the ability to monitor physical activity and alert users to health risks in real-time.

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Researchers develop 1st mini pacemaker capable of long-term mouse studies

Harvard Medical School scientists have created a wirelessly programmed, miniaturized pacemaker which functions for weeks to months at a time, opening the door to “previously impossible investigations of arrhythmia and heart failure in the mouse.”

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Cardiogenic shock signals complexity in takotsubo patients

Preliminary results from the RETAKO trial, a study of takotsubo syndrome (TTS) in the Spanish population, have identified cardiogenic shock as an independent, strong predictor of mortality and complexities in TTS patients—a demographic that’s already at considerable risk for complications.

Meta-analysis: DOACs should be ‘default approach’ after AFib cardioversion

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) can cut the short-term risk of thromboembolic events in half for patients who have undergone cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (AFib), suggests a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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AFib patients with cancer less likely to see cardiologist, receive anticoagulants

When cardiologists get involved in the treatment of patients with a history of cancer and newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AFib), those people see a subsequent 11 percent reduction in the risk of stroke, according to a new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. But those visits occur less often for that subgroup of patients than in AFib patients without cancer.