Arrhythmia Symptoms

Depending on the type of arrhythmia and the person (everyone is different), one might feel the following symptoms:

Racing heart
Strong pounding or fluttering sensation in the chest
Pulsing in the neck
Shortness of breath
Chest heaviness or pain
Weakness
Lightheadedness
Fainting spells
Or no symptoms at all

Symptoms usually last only seconds to minutes, but patients who have longer arrhythmias can have symptoms that last hours or even days to weeks. Certain arrhythmias increase the chance of stroke or heart failure, and others can even be life-threatening.

The most serious arrhythmia, called “ventricular fibrillation” causes the heart to race so fast that it cannot pump blood at all, resulting in sudden loss of consciousness, called a “cardiac arrest.” This is different from a heart attack, which is a sudden blockage in an artery and usually causes chest pain or heaviness but not fainting (a cardiac arrest is an “electrical problem” and a heart attack is a “plumbing problem”).