Description
Meet Risheek Kaul, MD, a cardiac electrophysiologist at UAMS Health, who specializes in diagnosing and treating heart rhythm disorders. In this video, Dr. Kaul explains how he cares for patients with heart rates that are too fast or too slow, including common conditions like atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, and other rhythm abnormalities that can cause fatigue, palpitations, shortness of breath, or even sudden cardiac arrest. Dr. Kaul also shares what makes his work so rewarding—helping patients reclaim their lives through advanced treatments like catheter ablation—and offers a message of reassurance and hope to anyone experiencing heart rhythm problems. If you or a loved one are struggling with symptoms of an abnormal heartbeat, expert care is available at UAMS Health. The first step toward feeling better starts with a conversation.
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Transcript
My name is Risheek Kaul. I’m a cardiac electrophysiologist, and I see patients at the UAMS outpatient cardiology department.
As a cardiac electrophysiologist, I take care of essentially two types of main problems. If patients have heart rates that are very high, I take care of those. If patients have heart rates that are very low, I also take care of those.
What could those diseases entail? Some things that cause fast heart rates are things like atrial fibrillation, which is fairly common, ventricular tachycardia—and patients can feel a whole host of symptoms as a result of this. They can just feel fatigue, they can feel palpitations, they can feel short of breath. Or alternatively, in the case of ventricular tachycardia, that’s actually a sudden cardiac arrest—so they pass out recurrently.
The most rewarding part of my work is really seeing patients get their life back. I’ve had two people that stick out in memory—one who I did an afib ablation on and another person who I did a PVC ablation on. And just to put things into perspective, these patients were very, very symptomatic. They were unable to carry on their daily activities, unable to carry on their workload because of how tired and fatigued they felt.
After the ablation, I saw them in clinic—they felt like new people. They were able to spend more time with their families. They were able to do more things with their families. They were able to get their life back. And that’s really, really what makes my job very rewarding.
For patients suffering or experiencing any heart rhythm disorders, my message would be that of reassurance and hope. I would say that heart rhythm abnormalities are not uncommon—they’re very frequent. The conversation, however, begins and the treatment begins once you come see us.
