Tag Archive - heart

September is Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month

September 7, 2012 in AFIB with 0 Comments

It’s September—back to school, cooler temperatures, and, of course, time for Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Awareness Month! Atrial Fibrillation, a heart rhythm disorder characterized by disorganization of electrical signals that coordinate beating of the upper chambers of the heart,  affects more than 2 million people in the United States.  While AF in itself it not life threatening, it can increase the risk of blood clots and stroke up to 5%, and its potential symptoms—palpitations, dizziness, chest pain, sweating, weakness, exercise intolerance, and fainting—can significantly impact quality of life.

During an episode of AF, the atria, or upper chambers of the heart, beat rapidly, causing them to contract less forcefully.   As a result, blood can pool—and therefore clot—in the atria, increasing the risk of stroke and possibly reducing blood flow to the body.  Clots formed in the atria can clog the arteries that supply blood to the brain (causing a stroke) or other vital organs.  According to the Heart Rhythm Society, the professional society for the study of heart rhythm disorders, AF “is estimated to be responsible for 88,000 deaths and $16 billion in additional costs to the U.S. healthcare system,” and accounts for about a third of hospitalizations for cardiac rhythm problems.

Thankfully, there is a wide variety of treatment options for the condition, ranging from “watch and wait,” to a variety of anti-arrhythmia medications, to invasive catheter ablation. Electrophysiologists, doctors who specialize in heart rhythm disturbances, will work with the patient to come up with the course of treatment that best suits his or her needs.

As the U.S. population ages, the number of people affected by AF is expected to almost double—to 5.6 million—over the next 40 years.  In fact, about 160,000 new cases of AF are diagnosed each year.  In an effort to spread the word about this dangerous condition, the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), the professional society for electrophysiology, launched a great Public Service Announcement (PSA) during AF Awareness month last year.  Click the link to watch the PSA and help distribute it to others.

Visit www.MyAFib.org and the TCAI website for more information about Atrial Fibrillation.

 

Holiday Heart Syndrome: The Gift you DON’T Want this Year

December 5, 2011 in AFIB, Community, Diet, Heart, Heart Rhythm, Holiday, Lifestyle Tips with 0 Comments

Ahhh, the holidays… the one time of the year we’re free to eat, drink, and be merry to our hearts’ content.  I don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but all of that merriment can do a number on your body.  Consider all the ways the holidays tend to assault our health:   there’s the extra pound of weight most of us gain during the holidays (which, sadly, rarely comes off the next year), the added salt and fat of those rich holiday goodies, the additional financial and family strain that are common this time of year, the workouts that fall by the wayside, and all those festive cocktails.   That last one can lead to what doctors call “Holiday Heart Syndrome,” a temporary disturbance in heart rhythm and/or function that usually occurs in folks who have no other health problems and is thought to be brought on by binge drinking.  So one minute you’re enjoying your third glass of champagne, and the next minute, your heart feels like it’s going to pound out of your chest.

The term Holiday Heart Syndrome was coined in the 1970s, when physicians began noticing an increase in heart rhythm disturbances in patients around the holiday season.  Most commonly, the sufferer of this syndrome is young, healthy, and does not normally drink in excess.  Imbibing a modest to large quantity of alcohol, though (which many of us do at holiday parties) can over-stimulate the electrical system of this otherwise healthy person’s heart and cause rhythm problems, most commonly Atrial Fibrillation.  Rhythm disturbances associated with Holiday Heart can also be caused by fluid overload, associated with all the salty foods we tend to eat during the holidays.  Luckily, most cases of Holiday Heart Syndrome go away on their own within 24 hours.  But some can persist or recur, increasing the sufferer’s risk of stroke or cardiomyopathy.

The most common symptoms of Holiday Heart Syndrome are palpitations, feeling like your heart is “jumping around” in your chest, and dizziness or fainting.  If you experience these symptoms, especially if you’re otherwise healthy and you’ve been back to the punch bowl a few times, your heart is telling you to stop drinking, sit down, hydrate well with water, and get some rest.  If the symptoms last for more than 5-10 minutes, it’s a good idea to go to the emergency room.  Even if they go away fairly quickly, though, it’s not a bad idea to tell your doctor; you could have a greater propensity toward heart rhythm disturbance in the future.

So how do we prevent Holiday Heart Syndrome?  According to one of TCAI’s Nurse Practitioners, D. Kay Zedlitz, ACNP, “the key is moderation.”  It’s okay to indulge in some festive food and drink, but don’t go overboard.  One alcoholic beverage per day for women and two for men is what’s widely considered moderate; if you go over your daily limit, consider abstaining the next several days to let your system rest.  Remember: alcohol is a toxin to the heart.  Try alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages (preferably water) at holiday parties, and limit your proportions of rich, salty foods.  Your heart will thank you for it.

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How to Take Your Own Pulse: Something Everyone Should Know

November 1, 2011 in AFIB, ER/Urgent Care, Heart, Heart Rhythm, Lifestyle Tips, Men, Women with 0 Comments

As a nurse, I’m often surprised at the number of people who don’t know how to take their own pulse.  I have to remind myself that, for someone who doesn’t do it every day, it can be a little tricky.  By the time you finish reading this, you’ll know exactly how to take your own pulse.

But before we get into the how, let’s talk about the why.  Why is it important to know how to check your own pulse anyway?  If you have Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), checking your pulse is a quick and easy way to tell if you’re in or out of rhythm.  While many people feel terrible when they’re in AFib—palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, and decreased stamina, to name a few—some folks have no idea when they go into AFib.  This can be especially dangerous for people with undiagnosed AFib, since the heart rhythm disorder is one of the top causes of stroke.  If you don’t know you’re in AFib, you can’t take steps to protect yourself from its potentially debilitating effects.

And since AFib affects more than 3 million Americans, mostly over the age of 60, I would argue that everyone age 60 or older should take their pulse on a regular basis to (at the very least) see if it’s fast or slow, regular or irregular.

So here’s how to do it:

  1.  Turn your left hand so that your palm is face-up.
  2. With the index and middle fingers of your right hand, draw a line from the base of your thumb to just below the crease in your wrist.  Your fingers should nestle just to the left of the large tendon that pops up when you bend your wrist toward you.
  3. Don’t press too hard, that will make the pulse go away.  Use gentle pressure.
  4. Wait.  It can take several seconds—and several micro-adjustments in the placement of your two fingers on your wrist—to find your pulse.  Just keep moving your fingers down or up your wrist in small increments (and pausing for a few seconds) until you find it.
  5. Notice whether your pulse is regular (keeps time like a metronome) or irregular (more random, fast-slow, fast-slow).  An irregular pulse is a tell-tale sign of AFib or other heart rhythm disturbances.
  6. To take your pulse rate:
    1. Find a watch with a second hand and place it on your right wrist or on the table next to your left hand.
    2. After finding your pulse, count the number of beats for 20 seconds.
    3. Multiply by 3 to get your heart rate, or beats per minute (or just count for 60 seconds for a math-free option).
    4. Normal, resting heart rate is about 60-100 beats per minute.

Questions about what you find?  Speak to a Nurse Navigator by calling (877) 887-7737, or consult your physician.

New Study Shows Lead Extraction Just as Safe When Done in EP Lab as Operating Room

October 5, 2011 in AFIB, Heart, Heart Rhythm, Lifestyle Tips with 3 Comments

We’ve talked in this blog about putting pacemakers and defibrillators in, but what about when they need to be taken out?  Lead extraction involves the removal of pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) leads from within the heart. Leads are thin, flexible wires that deliver energy to the heart muscle from a pacemaker or defibrillator to regulate the heart’s rhythm or deliver a shock if the patient is in a lethal heart rhythm.

Sometimes, the leads stop working properly or become obsolete and need to be taken out, usually to make way for new leads.  They can be difficult to extract because, over time, scar tissues grows over them.  During lead extraction, a sheath, or tube, is inserted threaded over the existing lead and inserted through a vein in the chest wall and into the heart.  The sheath helps free the lead from any scar tissue that may have developed around it, helping the doctor to gently pull the lead from the heart muscle.  Sometimes a laser is required to remove excess scar tissue that has grown around the lead.

Removing these adhered leads poses a risk of damaging the heart, which is why it used to be standard practice to do this complicated extraction procedure in the operating room (OR).   Nowadays, though, most high-volume Electrophysiology (EP) centers (TCAI included) do lead extractions in the EP Lab itself, with an OR and a cardio-thoracic surgeon (and his or her surgical team) on-call in case of emergencies.  A study published in the July 2011 issue Heart Rhythm, the journal of the Heart Rhythm Society (see full citation below), validated the safety of this approach.  The first of its kind, the study compared the safety and effectiveness of extracting leads in the OR versus the EP lab and found them to be essentially equal if a rapid-response surgical team is on-call to assist with any emergencies that might require surgery.

The study found that the most common complication associated with lead extraction was damage to blood vessels or chambers in the heart, which if it is serious enough, sometimes needs to be corrected with open heart surgery.  The major predictor of these complications during a lead extraction, according to the study, is age of the lead being extracted.  Older leads, have had more time to become adhered to other structures in the heart and are usually more difficult to extract.  Whether the extraction was done in the EP Lab by an electrophysiologist or in the OR by a Cardio-Thoracic Surgeon did not significantly impact the rate of complications, as long as there was a surgical team standing by to intervene in the EP lab in the event of complications.  We look forward to further study on this important matter—as the population of folks with cardiac devices ages, so will their leads.

REFERENCE: Francheschi, Frederic, MD, Dubuc, Marc MD, FHRS, Dharo, Jean-Claude, MD et al.  “Extraction of Transvenous Leads in the Operating Room Versus Electrophysiology Laboratory: A Comparative Study.”  Heart Rhythm, vol. 8, issue 11. July 2011.

September is Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month!

September 7, 2011 in AFIB, Heart, Heart Rhythm with 1 Comment

It’s that time of year again! The Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), the professional society for electrophysiology, has designated September as Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Awareness Month. The Society has launched a new Public Service Announcement (PSA), gotten Congress to adopt an AF Awareness Resolution, and partnered with the American College of Cardiology to develop an online resource for health care professionals. But what’s the point?

More public education is desperately needed about this serious condition that affects more than 2.5 million Americans, most of them over the age of 60. As the U.S. population ages, the number of people affected by AF is expected to almost double—to 5.6 million—over the next 40 years.

So, AF affects a lot of people, but why is that such a big deal? AF can be debilitating, dangerous, and costly. The condition can cause a major deterioration in quality of life for its sufferers, causing fatigue, palpitations, pain, and sometimes fainting spells. More seriously, AF increases the risk of stroke five times, and according to HRS, AF “and is estimated to be responsible for 88,000 deaths and $16 billion in additional costs to the U.S. healthcare system.” AF accounts for about a third of hospitalizations for cardiac rhythm problems.

It is vital that the public knows the signs and symptoms of AF—palpitations, fatigue, an irregular heart rate, a feeling akin to “a fish jumping around in the chest”—so folks can tell their doctors and be properly screened. There is a wide variety of treatment options for the condition, ranging from “watch and wait” to invasive catheter ablation. Electrophysiologists, doctors who specialize in heart rhythm disturbances, will work with the patient to come up with the course of treatment that best suits his or her needs.

Visit www.MyAFib.org and the TCAI website for more information about Atrial Fibrillation.

College Station A-Fib Seminar Coming March 29th

March 16, 2011 in AFIB, Community, Heart, Heart Rhythm with 0 Comments

If you’re located around College Station, and want to learn more about your atrial fibrillation and possible treatments for it, then your chance is coming!
Please join TCAI for an a-fib seminar:

Tuesday, March 29th
6 – 9 p.m.
Hilton Hotel & Conference Center
801 University Avenue
College Station, Texas

The seminar will be led by TCAI’s Dr. Rodney Horton, a nationally renowned a-fib expert. Dr. Horton will give an informal presentation all about a-fib and treatment options, followed by Q&A sessions with the audience. All seminars are free and open to the public. Whoop!

For further information, please call TCAI at 512.544.2342
~ Jamie LaRue, RN

TCAI Helps Teach Other Docs Emerging Heart Technologies

February 28, 2011 in AFIB, Heart, Heart Rhythm with 0 Comments

TCAI docs have been busy hosts this month . . .

No, not parties. But big events with groups of people – and for our electrophysiologists and the other attendees, the fare was still fairly thrilling.

– February 9-10th, TCAI and St. David’s Medical Center, along with Stereotaxis – a cardiac technologies company – sponsored the first-ever International Symposium on Remote Navigation for the Treatment of Complex Heart Arrhythmias.

Okay, yawn-inducing name. But cool conference.

Why? Because “remote navigation” means magnets, controlled via computer by your doctor, guiding catheters and other devices to and around the heart – with incredible precision and outstanding safety – to fix complex arrhythmias. And this system works with information and networking systems so that doctors anywhere with Internet access can collaborate and consult on procedures in real-time.

The symposium was led by TCAI electrophysiologists Dr. David Burkhardt and Dr. Rodney Horton, along with guest physician Dr. Tamas Szili-Torok, Clinical Head of Electrophsiology at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. About 30 medical professionals attended, observing live procedures and discussing a variety of technology “hot topics,” like how to achieve effective lesions and the next frontier for remote navigation.

– February 19-20th, TCAI and St. David’s Medical Center, along with Medtronic – a medical technology company – held a Basic Concepts of Device Management for Cardiology Fellows training, teaching future cardiologists how to use devices like pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators [ICDs] to solve heart-rhythm problems.

Led by TCAI director Dr. Andrea Natale, TCAI electrophysiologists Dr. Robert Canby and Dr. Jason Zagrodzky, and Dr. Manish Assar, an electrophysiologist from Baylor Heart & Vascular at Baylor University Medical Center, about 30 cardiologists-to-be from across the country – from California to New York – participated. The students attended classroom, auditorium and virtual cath lab sessions, learning critical heart-device information and actually performing a simulated pacemaker implant procedure.

~ Jamie LaRue, RN

Tour Guides to Heart Health

February 11, 2011 in AFIB, Heart, Heart Rhythm with 0 Comments

It’s always good to have a guide when you’re navigating new territory.

Whether it’s the GPS in your car giving directions, or the translator on your trip to Japan offering cultural interpretation, we all feel better with someone helping us through a new situation.

Which is why the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute Center for Arrhythmias & Atrial Fibrillation initiated its extraordinary Nurse Navigator program.

The Nurse Navigator program connects our a-fib patients one-on-one with a TCAI nurse who serves as their personal guide through their journey back to heart health.

From diagnosis through recovery, your Nurse Navigator is your point-person for all the information and attention you might need.

Over the course of your treatment process, your Nurse Navigator will likely provide:

  • her direct telephone number, so she can be your go-to guide for answers and assurance;
  • clarification and complete understanding of your diagnosis, treatment and recovery;
  • realistic expectations for every part of the process;
  • important instructions both before and after a procedure;
  • key logistical information, like driving directions, local lodging, etc.; and
  • a full year of followup post-procedure, to help you manage medications, monitoring or other continuing care.

TCAI Nurse Navigators – tour guides for your return to heart health.

Learn more about TCAI’s Nurse Navigator program and

meet our staff of Nurse Navigators here.

~ Jamie LaRue, RN

The Arrhythmia Beat

February 2, 2011 in AFIB, Heart, Heart Rhythm with 0 Comments

Welcome to the blog at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute!

Through regular posts – full of all you need to know about TCAI and heart-rhythm health – this blog aims to be your source for all things arrhythmia.

Here, you’ll find fascinating facts and insightful info, with upcoming topics like:

  • Heart attack vs. cardiac arrest: Know the difference
  • Are a-fib & sleep apnea bunkmates?
  • “Greening” the lab
  • Cardiac ablation 101
  • Can ablation affect migraines?
  • Redefining “hospital food”

We hope you’ll bookmark this blog, visit us often, and let your family or friends know where they can find us.

Come back soon for news you can use, as we cover the cardiac arrhythmia beat!

~ Jamie LaRue, RN