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Heart Disease Focus DictionaryA-E | F-J | K-O | P-S | T-Zpacemaker: Small devices that are implanted beneath the skin below the collarbone, delivering a small electrical impulse to stimulate the heart to beat when it is going too slow. palpitations: Unpleasant sensations of irregular and/or forceful beating of the heart. In some patients with palpitations, no heart disease or abnormal heart rhythms can be found. Reasons for their palpitations are unknown. In others, palpitations result from abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias). paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT): A rapid heart rate, usually with a regular rhythm, originating from above the ventricles. pulmonary stenosis: The pulmonary valve is too tight so that the flow of blood from the right ventricle of the heart into the pulmonary artery is impeded. This means the right ventricle must pump harder than normal to overcome the obstruction. quinidine: A drug used in the treatment of abnormal heart rhythms, depressing the excitability and conduction velocity of nerve impulses and the contractility of the heart muscle. sick sinus syndrome: An unsteady beat, usually in older people, may be caused by the natural pacemaker cells in the heart not sending electrical signals properly. sinus node dysfunction: A delay or complete block of the electrical impulse as it travels from the sinus node to the ventricles. Stokes-Adams heart block: When there is a missing electrical pathway in the heart this causes the heart muscle to beat too slowly. sudden cardiac death: A sudden, unexpected death caused by loss of heart function. It is the largest cause of natural death in the United States, responsible for about 250,000 adult deaths each year. Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) occurs most frequently in adults in their mid-30s to mid-40s, and affects men twice as often as it does women. SCD is rare in children, affecting only 1 or 2 for every 100,000 children each year.
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