What is the difference between palpitations and an irregular heart beat?
Palpitations are sensations you feel in your chest, such as fluttering or skipped beats, while an irregular heartbeat refers to a confirmed variation in your heart’s rhythm. An irregular heartbeat is often linked to conditions like atrial fibrillation. In this video, Dr Ravi Assomull explores how palpitations and irregular rhythms are connected, what causes them, and when they may indicate a more serious heart issue.
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Transcript
So palpitations are an actual symptom, and one of the causes of palpitations is an irregular heartbeat. And an irregular heartbeat typically is associated with a condition called atrial fibrillation. Palpitations themselves can be caused by atrial fibrillation, obviously, but also a range of other heart rhythm disturbances such as ectopic beats, which, although they cause an unpleasant sensation, they tend to be an extra beat or a skipped beat as opposed to an irregular beat, and thankfully are seldom associated with increased risk to you, unless you've already had heart problems or there is a strong family history of cardiac disease.
