Overview
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is a condition where your heart suddenly beats much faster than normal. It's not usually serious but can be associated with distracting symptoms and some people may need treatment.
Symptoms
Having supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) means your heart suddenly beats faster.
This:
- usually lasts for a few minutes, or up to several hours
- can happen several times a day or once a year
- can be triggered by caffeine, alcohol or drugs
- can happen at any age, but often starts for the first time in children and young adults
You may get no other symptoms, but sometimes people also are aware of:
- chest pain or discomfort
- weakness
- breathlessness
- light-headedness
- fatigue
Causes
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) happens when the electrical system that controls your heart rhythm is not working properly.
This causes your heart to suddenly beat much faster. It can then slow down abruptly.
A normal resting heart rate is 60 to 100 beats per minute (bpm). But with SVT your heart rate suddenly goes above 100bpm. This can happen when you're resting or doing exercise.
Diagnosis
Obtaining a 12-lead ECG at the time of symptoms is key to establishing a diagnosis and guiding treatment.
Occasionally an ECG can identify a problem even when you are not having symptoms.
This is not always possible and continuous ECG monitoring is often needed to obtain correlation between symptoms and the heart rhythm problem. Sometimes a diagnostic electrophysiology study is performed to establish the diagnosis.
Occasionally an ECG can identify a problem even when you are not having symptoms. Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is a specific condition caused by an extra connection between the top and bottom chambers of your heart.
This can be picked up incidentally on a routine ECG as pre-excitation but can also be a cause of SVT
Treatment
Medications can be helpful to modify the abnormal circuits in your heart and manage symptoms.
In most cases, a catheter ablation can be performed to remove the cause of the SVT and avoid the need for ongoing medications.