Heart palpitations - Overview

Alternative Names

Heartbeat sensations; Irregular heartbeat; Palpitations; Heart pounding or racing

Definition of Heart palpitations:

Palpitations are heartbeat sensations that feel like your heart is pounding or racing. You may simply have an unpleasant awareness of your own heartbeat, or may feel skipped or stopped beats. The heart's rhythm may be normal or abnormal. Palpitations can be felt in your chest, throat, or neck.

Considerations:

Normally the heart beats 60 - 100 times per minute. In people who exercise routinely or take medications that slow the heart, the rate may drop below 55 beats per minute.

If your heart rate is very fast (over 100 beats per minute), this is called tachycardia. An unusually slow heart rate is called bradycardia. An occasional extra heartbeat is known as extrasystole.

Palpitations are usually not serious. However, it depends on whether or not the sensations represent an abnormal heart rhythm ( arrhythmia). The following conditions make you more likely to have an abnormal heart rhythm:

Known heart disease at the time the palpitations begin
Significant risk factors for heart disease
An abnormal heart valve
An electrolyte abnormality in your blood -- for example, a low potassium level

Common Causes:

Heart palpitations can be caused by:

Exercise
Anxiety, stress, fear
Fever
Caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, diet pills
Overactive thyroid
Anemia
Hyperventilation
Low levels of oxygen in your blood
Medications such as thyroid pills, asthma drugs, beta blockers, or anti-arrhythmics. (Medications to treat an irregular heart rhythm will sometimes cause a different irregular rhythm).
Mitral valve prolapse, a condition in which the valve that separates the left upper chamber (atrium) from the left lower chamber (ventricle) of the heart does not close properly
Heart disease

Heart chambers

Heart beat

Reviewed last on: 5/1/2008
David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

References

Mayou R, Sprigings D, Birkhead J, et al. Characteristics of patients presenting to a cardiac clinic with palpitation. QJM. 2003;96(2):115-123.

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