You and Your Arrhythmia: A Guide to Heart Rhythm Problems for Patients & Their Families - PDF
نویسندگان: John A. Kastor
خلاصه: Cardiac arrhythmias are among our most common afflictions. Usuallythey have little clinical importance and present no risk to the life ofpatients who have them. Occasionally, however, they can produce trou-blesome symptoms and may even bring about the patient’s death.*Arrhythmias produce rapid, slow, or irregular heartbeats of whichsome patients may be acutely conscious, whereas others may beunaware. Explaining what arrhythmias are and how doctors treatthem—when that is necessary—is the purpose of this book.First I explain the anatomy and physiology of the heart, particularlyof the electrical components that give rise to arrhythmias.Then I describe most of the arrhythmias that patients maydevelop. Each chapter has been built around the experiences of apatient for whom the author or one his colleagues has cared. In somecases, I have changed the stories slightly to facilitate understandingand to avoid confusing the picture with issues that the doctors mighthave needed to consider but are unrelated to the topic being dis-cussed. In the next section, I explain how cardiologists use drugs andixPreface* For a more comprehensive discussion of the subject, some readers may want to con-sult the author’s text Arrhythmias (Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders, 2000).devices such as pacemakers and implantable defibrillators to treatarrhythmias.I then invite the reader to take a short course in electrocardiography,for it is this familiar test that we use to diagnose arrhythmias and evaluatethe effects of treatment. The reader will find electrocardiograms of someof the arrhythmias discussed in the case reports to see how cardiologistsrecognize which arrhythmia is which.The analysis of arrhythmias has, in recent decades, become so complexthat a subspecialty of cardiology has developed for those who study thissubject. Some call the practitioners of this art arrhythmologists, a name thatno reader of this book is required to learn. Many arrhythmologists work incardiac electrophysiology laboratories, large rooms filled with electroniccomputerized equipment where the details of patients’ arrhythmias arestudied and appropriate treatments are planned and instituted. By describ-ing what goes on in these laboratories, I will try to relieve some of the con-cern that patients who undergo these procedures may have and dispelsome of the mystery about what those working in these laboratories aredoing.