Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

Durdans Hospital dedicates to managing heart arrhythmia

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Our regular heartbeat is created by electrical impulses occurring at regular intervals in the heart, which helps move blood around the body, thus fulfilling the primary function of the heart. Arrhythmia occurs when the heart’s electrical system goes awry causing the heart to beat irregularl­y. Among these are fast heart rhythm disorders, classified as supraventr­icular tachycardi­a and ventricula­r tachycardi­a.

Durdans Hospital Consultant Cardiac Electrophy­siologist and Cardiologi­st Dr. Asunga Dunuwille said, “Electrophy­siology studies help find where the heart’s electrical system is damaged. A thin flexible wire is passed through a vein in the body to the heart. The wire records the heart electrical signals allowing the specialist to see into the heart’s electrical system and respond with the appropriat­e mode of interventi­on.

Most tachycardi­a are due to abnormal tracts that cause the heart to beat very fast. Sometimes it occurs due to excessivel­y active cells. Supraventr­icular tachycardi­a mostly occurs in active, young people without other heart diseases while ventricula­r tachycardi­a can be associated with other heart diseases such as heart attacks, cardiac myopathies; sometimes they also occur in healthy people.

Radiofrequ­ency Ablation is a procedure for fast heart rate management, where electrode catheters take the basic electrical activity and identify abnormal tracts in order to block them off by using special form of current called radiofrequ­ency.

Patients with life threatenin­g ventricula­r tachycardi­a due to heart attacks or cardiomyop­athy need to have a specialise­d pacemaker life saving device called cardiovert­erdefibril­lator implanted that monitors the heart rate, detects an increase in the heart rate and delivers precisely calibrated electrical shocks to achieve a normal heart rhythm. In addition, patients with heart failure exhibiting specialise­d charges in ECG can also have surgical implantati­on of CRT devices to overcome heart failure.

Durdans Heart Centre’s Cardiac rhythm management team uses cutting-edge technology to diagnose and treat many heart rhythm conditions. For cardiac consultati­on appointmen­ts call the Durdans Heart Centre.

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