Diagnosing Arrhythmia

The doctor, general physician or heart specialist would delve into the patient’s triggering factors that are leading to arrhythmia. A comprehensive interview would involve probing into the patient’s medical and family past, dietary intake and lifestyle along with other determining factors. The doctor would recommend the below stated tests:

• Blood and Urine Analysis – These tests are conducted for checking the blood count and the functioning of the liver, thyroid and kidney. The blood is additionally checked for the presence of particular chemical markers that are indicators of heart malfunction like BNP or brain natriuretic peptide – a kind of hormone whose secretion by the heart increases during injury or overstrain, though it is initially recognized by the brain. The sodium and potassium levels are evaluated for testing serum electrolytes.
• ECG or Electrocardiogram – The electrical and rhythmic activities are recorded by the ECG via electrodes affixed on to the skin’s surface. The impulses generated are recorded in a form of waves and the output being viewed on a display unit or the printout on paper. The test could also spot any heart damage that could have occurred due to heart attack.
• Holter Monitor – The convenient worn device that measures all data regarding the electrical activity of the heart beats. The device is internally donned by the patient for a period of nearly two days with a button-like device that could be pushed in case of symptoms being experienced. This helps the doctor to observe the condition of the heart rhythms during that particular period.
• Event Monitor or Recorder – This device is quite alike the Holter monitor except that it doesn’t record the heart beats. There are two forms of event monitors – one that employs a phone for signal transmission from the recorder during symptomatic periods. The second type of diagnostic device is ideal for detecting sporadic rhythmic distortions and has to be worn at all times for longer periods of time lasting up to a month except while bathing.
• Echocardiogram – This ultrasound scan test is employed to for checking the heart’s pumping mechanism. This scan aid in differentiating systolic heart malfunction from diastolic heart malfunction –the heart showing stiffness and not appropriately filling. The video images of the heart are created with the aid of sound waves that aid in diagnosing the heart’s pumping efficiency. Ejection fraction is a vital measurement carried out to determine in each heartbeat the proportion of blood being ejected out from the left ventricle –the chief pumping chamber. A normally functioning heart pumps out nearly sixty percent of the blood that flows into the ventricle during every heart beat.
• Chest X-ray – The images generated during X-ray assist in determining the functioning of the heart and the lungs. The presence of any form of congenital heart anomaly is also detected in a chest X-ray. Other underling conditions that might elucidate the appearance of the symptoms are also diagnosed through this procedure.
• Tilt-table Test – A tilt-table test is conducted when ECG or the Holter methods could not corroborate the reasons behind recurrent episodes of fainting, giddiness or wooziness. The table gauges the blood pressure, heart’s rhythms and rate in varying positions ranging from lying down to erect for detecting if there is an appropriate blood supply to the brain, a dearth of which leads to episodes of fainting.
• EP or Electrophysiological Testing – A minimally-invasive, rather painless, non-surgical intervention testing aids in analyzing the arrhythmia form, cause and probable reaction to the treatment. The test is conducted in an electrophysiology lab under the guidance of an electrophysiologist that aids in replicating the offending arrhythmias in a controlled environment. The EP study is conducted in the following steps:
• Under the influence of local anesthesia, a preliminary perforation is made through which an introducer sheath is introduced into a blood vessel that acts as a conduit for the catheter that is lined up the blood vessel via the body reaching into the right cardiac chambers.
• The movement of the catheter is monitored by the electrophysiologist. While lodged within the heart, the catheter detects and records the origin of the irregular impulses, their rate and which normal conduit paths they evade. Treatments are employed to determine if they halt the arrhythmia.
• The catheter and introducer sheaths are then gently taken out, and the puncture site is sealed by either application of pressure to the location or by suturing it.

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