Andrea Natale, MD, FACC, FHRS, FESC
Conor Barrett, MB, BCh, BAO, BMedSC
Stephan Danik, MD, MSC 
Emad Aziz, MD
Walter Pierce, MD

An arrhythmia is any deviation or disturbance in the heart’s normal rhythm. A cardiologist who specializes in heart rhythms, called an electrophysiologist, usually treats this condition. The heart’s basic rhythm is a tightly regulated phenomenon designed to insure maximum efficiency and optimal performance. Its normal, intrinsic pacemaker, called the sinoatrial node, located in the organ’s upper right atrium (chamber), generates the signal or impulse that triggers a heartbeat.

However, to get the heart’s lower chambers, or ventricles, to pump, the impulse must cross the heart’s electrical conduction system. The system is a series of specialized tissues that take the impulse from the top chamber, slows its progression and passes it on to specialized fibers, which transmit the impulse across the lower pumping chambers, signaling them to contract.

Arrhythmias occur when any portion of this sequence is interrupted or disturbed. They may be benign, symptomatic, life threatening or even fatal. Their consequences depend not only on their symptoms, but also on the presence of any abnormal structural conditions in the heart.

Some examples of arrhythmia conditions treated by an electrophysiologist are atrial fibrillation, bradycardia, tachycardia, Long QT syndrome, Brugada Syndrome, and bundle branch block.

The Al–Sabah Arrhythmia Institute at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals has wide-ranging, comprehensive non-surgical and surgical approaches to treat all arrhythmia conditions.

Our expert cardiologists use diagnostic tests, such as ECG/EKG, Holter monitoring (non-stop reading of the heart rate and rhythm over a 24-hour period), event monitoring for problems that may not be found within the 24-hour period, and electrophysiology studies, to noninvasively obtain data about heartbeats and provide important information about arrhythmias, their risk factors and a patient’s response to treatment.

The Al-Sabah Arrhythmia Institute offers the full spectrum of treatments for arrhythmia conditions, such as medications, catheter ablation, and implantation of pacemakers or cardioverter defibrillators, also called ICD’s. We also have vast experience with laser lead extraction, a cutting edge procedure to safely remove failed or impacted pacemaker and ICD leads.

For a referral to an expert cardiologist at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, call 877.996.9334.