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One of the issues that heart rhythm specialists deal with is something called ventricular tachycardia—or as we like to call this, VT. This is essentially a very, very dangerous abnormally fast heart rhythm that can cause people to pass out or pass away.
As an electrophysiologist, I’m involved in the care of VT in two ways.
Number one: to screen people who are at a higher risk of developing these arrhythmias and implanting devices called defibrillators, which would protect them in the case that they do have VT. These defibrillators are like your own little guardian angel that are constantly monitoring your heart, and in case you were to go into a dangerous abnormal rhythm, they would shock you out of it.
There are no symptoms, unfortunately, for VT—or there sometimes cannot be. Some people can have episodes of lightheadedness or dizziness. Not all lightheadedness or dizziness is caused by VT, but in patients who have sick hearts, lightheadedness or dizziness can be due to VT, or ventricular tachycardia.
After the prevention, the other modality includes: what do we do for people that are experiencing VT and already have defibrillators—already have something to protect them? Well, there are a whole host of treatment plans for that as well, ranging from medications and also procedures called catheter ablations.
The treatment plan is tailored really to what the patient and their family would prefer. Medications is a good place to start. However, they do not always do a great job at controlling the VT, and at some point—especially if the medications are failing—catheter ablation, which we perform at UAMS, is our way to get out of that tight situation and help improve the patient’s quality of life.
