When Someone Faints, How Do We Know It Is Related To A Heart Rhythm Problem Or Something Else That Could Be Serious?
Question: When someone faints, how do we know that it is related to a heart rhythm problem or something else that could be serious such as a seizure?
Answer :The only way to know whether fainting is related to a heart rhythm problem is to have a monitoring device on you at the time of the faint. Obviously, this is not possible for the first time you had a faint, but for future episodes, various types of rhythm monitoring devices -- some for a day, some for a month, some for a year -- will be placed on you where a computer will record what your heart rhythm is doing at the time you are about to faint, or, if it wasn't prevented, when you actually fainted. That is the best way to make the diagnosis. Your doctor sometimes can make a very good guess as to this problem by doing tests on your heart at times when you're not fainting, like an ultrasound or an electrical test on the heart's conduction system.
