Palpitations
• Palpitations are the symptom of an awareness of the heart beat or of an irregular, fast or forceful heart 
beat.
• Palpitations are extremely common.
• Palpitations can be a sign of a life threatening illness if associated with:
· passing out
· lightheadedness
· chest pain
· a history of heart disease
· a history of heart valvular disease
• Palpitations can be due to:
· Anemia (low blood count, low hemoglobin)
· Anxiety
· Arrhythmia (diseases of abnormal electrical activity and rhythm of the heart muscle)
· Exercise-associated
· Valvular regurgitation (mitral regurgitation, aortic regurgitation)
· Overactive thyroid
• Palpitations are caused by:
· heart in 43% of cases
· psychiatric(anxiety/panic disorder) in 31% of cases
· other disease (thyroid disease, medications) in 10% of cases
· No known cause in 16% of cases
• Drugs associated with palpitations include:
· amphetamines
· caffeine
· cocaine
· thyroid hormone medication
· theophylline (an asthma medication)
· tobacco/ nicotine
· Sudafed (Pseudoephedrine) / cold medications
• Palpitations should be evaluated by your doctor
References
Barsky AJ. Palpitations, arrhythmias, and awareness of cardiac activity. Ann Intern Med. 2001;134(9 Pt 2):832-7. [PMID: 11346318]
Quinn JV et al. Derivation of the San Francisco Syncope rule to predict patients with short-term serious outcomes. Ann Emerg Med. 2004 Feb;43(2):224-32. [PMID: 14747812]
Posted on January 19, 2009
Medicues Health Talk
Recent Topics
- Emma Ruiz on Bad news for those with allergies
- Rachel Moron on Best medication
- jonathantrott on Pompe Disease
- fainajones on My Introduction with a simple contribution to this forum !!
- fainajones on Hello
