PSVT | Clinical Investigation Specialists

What is paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT)?

Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) is episodes of rapid heart rate that start in a part of the heart above the ventricles. The term paroxysmal means from time to time.

Why You Should Care?

Symptoms?

Risk Factors?

Complications?

Treatment?

Why you should care:

• SVT is a common entity in clinical practice and a relatively common occurrence in the emergency department.

• The incidence of SVT is approximately 35 cases per 100,000 patients with a prevalence of 2.25 cases per 1,000 in the general population.

• Atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter are the most common subtypes of SVT, affecting approximately 2 million patients in the United States.

• The most common of the PSVT is atrial fibrillation with a prevalence rate of approximately 0.4% to 1% occurring in men and women equally, it is projected to affect as many as 7.5 million patients by 2050.

• The risk of developing PSVT was found to be twice in women as compared to men in a population-based study, with the prevalence of the PSVT higher with age.

Top

Symptoms:

Heart palpitations, often described as a "rapid heartbeat." Other symptoms include the following:

• Light headedness

• Weakness and fatigue

• Shortness of breath

• Chest pressure

• Syncope (passing out)

Top

Causes and Risk Factors:

Causes:

• It can develop when doses of the heart medicine, digitalis, are too high.

• It can also occur with a condition known as Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which is most often seen in young people and infants.

Risk Factors:

• Alcohol use

• Caffeine use (passing out)

• Illicit drug use

• Smoking

Top

Treatment:

PSVT that occurs only once in a while may not need treatment if you don't have symptoms or other heart problems.

You can try the following techniques to interrupt a fast heartbeat during an episode of PSVT:

• Valsalva maneuver. To do this, you hold your breath and strain, as if you were trying to have a bowel movement.

• Coughing while sitting with your upper body bent forward.

• Splashing ice water on your face.

You should avoid smoking, caffeine, alcohol, and illicit drugs.

Long-term treatment for people who have repeat episodes of PSVT, or who also have heart disease, may include:

• Cardiac ablation , a procedure used to destroy small areas in your heart that may be causing the rapid heartbeat (currently the treatment of choice for most PSVTs).

• Daily medicines to prevent repeat episodes.

• Pacemakers to override the fast heartbeat (on occasion may be used in children with PSVT who have not responded to any other treatment).

• Surgery to change the pathways in the heart that send electrical signals (this may be recommended in some cases for people who need other heart surgery.

Top