Expert cardiology evaluation for a racing, fluttering, pounding, or skipped heartbeat. Personalized rhythm testing and treatment based on your symptoms and heart health.
Heart palpitations can be unsettling, especially when you are unsure whether the sensation is coming from your heart rhythm. They may feel like fluttering, pounding, racing, skipped beats, or simply an unusual awareness of your own heartbeat. Some people notice them only at rest, others during activity or at night.
Although not every palpitation is caused by heart disease, frequent, prolonged, or unexplained palpitations deserve careful evaluation — particularly when they occur together with dizziness, chest discomfort, or shortness of breath.
If you have been experiencing a racing or irregular heartbeat, fluttering in the chest or throat, lightheadedness, unexplained fatigue, or ongoing symptoms following an emergency room visit, a cardiology evaluation can help identify what is driving your symptoms.
When you are concerned about a racing or irregular heartbeat, knowing who will evaluate you matters. Our cardiologists assess each patient individually rather than relying on a single test result, and take the time to explain what your heart rhythm is doing and why.
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Alliance Heart & Vascular is expanding to serve patients across Pearland, Greater Houston and surrounding communities.
Comprehensive cardiology, preventive cardiovascular care, diagnostic evaluation, and follow-up.
View Pearland LocationAlliance Heart & Vascular is expanding across Greater Houston and nearby communities, bringing convenient access to trusted cardiovascular care closer to where our patients live and work.
Alliance Heart & Vascular works with many major health insurance plans. Insurance participation can vary by plan, network, employer, and location.
Please call (346) 614-0002 before your appointment to verify your specific insurance benefits and network participation. Our team can help answer questions about scheduling, referrals, and insurance verification.
Some people delay seeing a cardiologist because palpitations are brief or come and go. However, heart rhythm problems are not always dramatic, and some of the most important arrhythmias are intermittent. A cardiology evaluation can help determine whether your symptoms are harmless or need treatment.
Even when emergency testing is reassuring, recurring palpitations may require longer heart rhythm monitoring to capture an episode as it happens.
Heart palpitations can occur alongside or be associated with several cardiovascular conditions. Learn more about:
If your palpitations occur with fainting, severe chest pain, or persistent difficulty breathing, call 911 immediately.
Do not wait for an office appointment.
Online appointment requests should never be used for potentially life-threatening symptoms.
Many patients expect a rhythm problem to feel dramatic. That is not always the case. Palpitations are described in many different ways:
The pattern, duration, and triggers of palpitations offer important clues, but symptoms alone cannot reliably identify the rhythm. That is why recording your heartbeat during an episode is often the key to a diagnosis.
Palpitations may arise from the heart's electrical system or from non-cardiac triggers such as thyroid disease, anemia, medication, or stress. A cardiology evaluation helps determine which rhythm is responsible and whether it needs treatment.
The most common sustained arrhythmia. AFib produces a fast, irregular heartbeat and raises stroke risk, so it needs prompt diagnosis and treatment.
SVT causes sudden episodes of a very fast, regular heartbeat that may start and stop abruptly, often with lightheadedness or breathlessness.
Extra beats from the upper or lower chambers are common and often harmless, but frequent ectopy can affect heart function over time.
A rapid, organized rhythm from the upper chambers that can cause palpitations, fatigue, and reduced exercise tolerance.
Rhythms arising from the lower chambers range from benign extra beats to serious arrhythmias that require urgent evaluation.
Problems with the heart muscle or valves can trigger rhythm disturbances, and palpitations are sometimes the first sign.
Yes. Many non-cardiac conditions can trigger a racing or irregular heartbeat. Possible causes include:
Patients should not assume that a recurring racing or irregular heartbeat is simply stress, caffeine, or anxiety without appropriate evaluation. Rhythm problems can be intermittent and still be significant.
Palpitations can appear in different ways depending on the underlying rhythm. Certain patterns help determine whether further cardiovascular testing is needed and which test is most likely to capture the episode.
Episodes noticed when lying down or falling asleep are common and often benign, because the heartbeat is simply easier to feel at rest. Frequent nighttime palpitations with breathlessness still deserve evaluation.
A racing heartbeat that begins with exertion, or that persists long after you stop, may indicate an exercise-related arrhythmia. Exercise stress testing is often used to reproduce and record it.
Episodes that start and stop abruptly, sometimes described as a switch flipping on and off, may point to a supraventricular arrhythmia such as SVT. Ambulatory monitoring can help confirm it.
Palpitations accompanied by lightheadedness, near-fainting, or loss of consciousness require prompt cardiology evaluation, as these may reflect a more significant rhythm disturbance.
Palpitations are common around pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause. Hormonal changes, anemia, and thyroid disease should be considered alongside cardiac causes rather than assumed.
Not every patient needs every cardiac test. Testing should be selected based on your symptoms, examination, medical history, and cardiovascular risk. Depending on your individual situation, your cardiologist may recommend one or more of the following.
Measures the heart's electrical activity and may identify rhythm problems or other cardiac changes.
Uses ultrasound to evaluate heart function, chambers, valves, muscle, and structure.
Shows how the heart responds to physical activity and may help evaluate exercise-related symptoms.
Uses cardiac imaging during stress testing to assess blood flow to the heart muscle.
Records heart rhythm over time to help detect intermittent arrhythmias or palpitations.
Blood tests may evaluate cholesterol, blood sugar, kidney function, and other cardiovascular risk factors.
Certain patients may require additional cardiac imaging or coronary evaluation depending on their symptoms and risk profile. Your cardiologist will explain why a particular test is being recommended and how the results may influence your treatment plan.
Treatment depends on the rhythm causing your symptoms. There is no single plan for every patient with palpitations, and many people need reassurance and trigger avoidance rather than medication. When an arrhythmia is confirmed, treatment may include:
Our objective is not simply to make the sensation go away. We want to identify the rhythm behind it, assess your stroke and cardiovascular risk, and build a plan that keeps your heart in a safe rhythm long term.
This is a common reason patients schedule an appointment with a cardiologist. Emergency departments are designed to identify and treat immediate danger, and palpitations often stop before an ECG can record them. A normal emergency room ECG does not always mean the rhythm has been identified.
You may benefit from additional evaluation if you continue experiencing:
Talk to our office — Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Call (346) 614-0002Palpitations are usually described as a racing, pounding, fluttering, or skipping heartbeat, or simply an unusual awareness of your own heart beating. They may last a few seconds or continue for minutes to hours.
Call 911 if palpitations occur with fainting or near-fainting, severe chest pain, or persistent difficulty breathing, or if a very fast heartbeat does not settle. Do not drive yourself to the hospital.
No. Many palpitations are harmless, particularly brief skipped beats. However, frequent, prolonged, or unexplained episodes may indicate an arrhythmia and deserve evaluation, especially in patients with cardiovascular risk factors.
Palpitations are often more noticeable at rest because there is less activity to distract from the sensation, and lying on your left side can make the heartbeat easier to feel. Frequent nighttime episodes with breathlessness should still be evaluated.
Yes. Caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, energy drinks, and some decongestant or stimulant medications can trigger palpitations in sensitive individuals. Reducing these is often part of the initial plan.
Anxiety can cause a rapid heartbeat and a heightened awareness of it. However, arrhythmias can also produce anxiety-like symptoms, so palpitations should not be attributed to stress until a cardiac cause has been considered.
Testing may include an ECG, echocardiogram, ambulatory heart rhythm monitoring, exercise stress testing, and laboratory tests for thyroid function, anemia, and electrolytes. Monitoring is often the most useful test because it records the rhythm while symptoms are happening.
Yes. An ECG records only a few seconds of your heartbeat. If palpitations are intermittent, the ECG may be completely normal between episodes. Longer heart rhythm monitoring is often required to capture them.
Follow-up is appropriate when symptoms continue, when the rhythm was never recorded, when cardiovascular risk factors are present, or when the emergency physician recommends further outpatient evaluation.
Atrial fibrillation is a fast, irregular rhythm arising from the upper chambers of the heart. It is a common cause of palpitations and increases stroke risk, which is why identifying and treating it matters.
Yes. An overactive thyroid is a well-recognized cause of palpitations and a persistently rapid heart rate. Thyroid testing is a routine part of the evaluation.
Palpitations are common during pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause because of hormonal and circulatory changes. They should still be evaluated, particularly when associated with dizziness or breathlessness.
No. When testing shows a benign rhythm, reassurance and trigger avoidance may be all that is needed. Treatment is directed at the underlying rhythm when an arrhythmia is confirmed.
Bring your medication list, insurance information, identification, previous heart-test results, laboratory reports, and any hospital or emergency room records. Recordings from a smartwatch or home ECG device are also helpful.
Yes. Alliance Heart & Vascular welcomes new patients seeking cardiovascular evaluation. Call our office or request an appointment online.
A racing or irregular heartbeat should not be ignored.
Whether you are experiencing sudden episodes of a fast heartbeat, fluttering at night, palpitations with dizziness, ongoing symptoms after an emergency room visit, or concerns about atrial fibrillation, our cardiologists can help identify the rhythm and guide treatment.
New patients are welcome.
Serving patients throughout Pearland, Greater Houston, and surrounding areas.
