Symptoms

Palpitations

Palpitations describe an abnormal awareness of the heartbeat.  The beats themselves may be isolated or prolonged (arrhythmia) and may be felt to be abnormally fast or slow.

Dizzy Spells

There are many causes of dizzy spells and blackouts. Slow heartbeats (bradycardia) or missed heartbeats (heart block) may cause transient dizziness (pre-syncope) or complete blackouts (syncope).

Cardiac arrhythmia and bradycardia or heart block can occur when the electrical activation of the heart becomes abnormal, either in isolation or in association with other heart conditions and may require drugs or the implantation of a cardiac pacemaker.

Chest Pain and Breathlessness

Many types of heart disease cause difficulty in breathing or pain in the chest. Unless the condition is very severe, for example a heart attack (myocardial infarct or coronary thrombosis), pain or breathing difficulty characteristically occurs with exercise.

Heart related breathlessness is often worse lying flat at night.

Heart pain (angina) is felt in the centre of the chest and can occur in the throat or arm.

There are three common causes of chest pain and breathlessness :