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AFib and heart arrhythmia care
Heart doctors at Ascension Illinois in Chicagoland deliver specialized care for AFib and other heart arrhythmias.
Heart rhythm and AFib care in Illinois
Heart doctors at Ascension Illinois in Chicagoland deliver specialized care for AFib and other heart arrhythmias.
Heart rhythm and arrhythmia care in Illinois
Heart doctors at Ascension Illinois provide comprehensive care for atrial fibrillation (AFib) and the full spectrum of heart rhythm disorders. Our electrophysiology teams offer advanced diagnostic testing, personalized medical therapy, implantable devices, and minimally invasive procedures to help restore normal heart rhythm, improve symptoms, and reduce the risk of stroke, heart failure, and sudden cardiac events.
Why choose us
When you choose Ascension Illinois for heart rhythm care, your care team is part of a nationally recognized cardiovascular program with more than 100 cardiologists and cardiac surgeons statewide. Our electrophysiologists treat both routine and complex arrhythmias using advanced technology and a collaborative approach that brings together cardiology, electrophysiology, and cardiac surgery when needed.
Understand AFib and other heart arrhythmias
Heart arrhythmias occur when the electrical signals that control your heartbeat do not work properly. These rhythm disorders can cause your heart to beat too fast, too slow, or irregularly.
Arrhythmias we commonly treat include:
- Atrial fibrillation (AFib)
- Atrial flutter
- Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT)
- Premature atrial contractions (PACs)
- Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs)
- Ventricular tachycardia (VT)
- Bradycardia and heart block
Some arrhythmias cause noticeable symptoms, while others may have no symptoms and are discovered during testing. Our specialists work with you to understand your condition and choose the most appropriate treatment.
Symptoms of AFib and other heart arrhythmias
Common symptoms heart arrhythmias include:
- Anxiety or feeling uneasy
- Chest discomfort or pain
- Dizziness or lightheadedness
- Fatigue or feeling unusually tired
- Fainting
- Fluttering feeling in the chest
- Irregular or rapid heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
- Skipping or pounding heartbeat
- Weakness or difficulty exercising
How we diagnose AFib
Your cardiologist may recommend one or more tests to understand how your heart is beating, identify the type of rhythm condition you have, and guide treatment decisions.
Our heart care teams use ambulatory heart monitoring to help detect and evaluate irregular heart rhythms that may not appear during an office visit. These simple tests record your heart’s activity while you go about your daily routine, giving your cardiologist a better understanding of your heart health.
Ambulatory monitors are small, wearable devices that record your heart’s electrical activity over a period of time to identify irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias). This diagnostic tool helps guide treatment decisions, and monitor how well your current heart care plan is working.
A blood test is a lab analysis of things that may be found in your blood. You may have blood tests to keep track of how well you are managing a condition, such as diabetes or high cholesterol. You may also have them for routine checkups or when you are ill.
A chest X-ray is a quick, noninvasive imaging test that provides a detailed picture of the inside of your chest, helping your care team detect signs of a heart condition.
It's used to check the heart's function and structures. During the procedure, a transducer (like a microphone) sends out sound waves at a frequency too high to be heard. When the transducer is placed on the chest at certain locations and angles, the sound waves move through the skin and other body tissues to the heart tissues. The waves bounce or "echo" off the heart structures. These sound waves are sent to a computer that can create moving images on the screen of the heart walls and valves.
Our cardiology team uses advanced diagnostic tools and expertise to accurately identify a wide range of cardiac issues, ensuring you receive the right care as early as possible.
Our cardiology team uses advanced diagnostic tools and expertise to accurately identify a wide range of cardiac issues, ensuring you receive the right care as early as possible.
For this test, insulated electric catheters are placed through the large vein in the upper leg and threaded into the heart. It's used to test the heart's electrical system. It helps your doctor look at what might be causing abnormal heart rhythms.
An implantable loop recorder is a small device placed under the skin of the chest to continuously monitor heart rhythm over months or years. It can help diagnose irregular heartbeats, unexplained fainting, or symptoms that occur only occasionally.
This is also called a treadmill or exercise ECG. This test is done to monitor the heart while you walk on a treadmill or pedal a stationary bike. Your doctor also monitors your breathing and blood pressure. A stress test may be used to detect coronary artery disease, or to determine safe levels of exercise after a heart attack or heart surgery. This test can also be done using special medicines that stress the heart in a similar manner as exercise does. Sometimes a stress test will collect ECG information along with heart ultrasound pictures. This is called an exercise or stress echocardiogram (echo). It's more sensitive and specific than ECG stress testing alone.
This test is similar to a transthoracic echocardiogram. But it's done with medicine to help you relax (sedation). It's considered invasive because a probe is put into your body. In this test, you will swallow a small probe about the size of your thumb. The probe passes down the esophagus, which lies directly behind the heart. It allows a much closer look at the heart's structure and function than a standard echocardiogram done on the skin of the chest. It can better look at heart valve structure and function. Your doctor can better see any blood clots that may be in the heart.
How we treat AFib and other heart arrhythmias
Treatment for AFib and other heart arrhythmias is individualized and may include medication, procedures, implantable devices, or surgery.
Cardioversion is a procedure that uses controlled electrical energy or medication to restore the heart to a normal rhythm. It may be recommended for people experiencing certain irregular heartbeats, including atrial fibrillation.
This procedure uses radio frequency energy or freezing to get rid of problem areas in the heart that cause abnormal heart rhythm. The abnormal area is found during an electrophysiology study. This study maps the electrical activity that controls the heart rhythm. This procedure can diagnose and potentially cure abnormal heart rhythms.
For appropriate patients, AFib ablation and left atrial appendage closure may be performed during the same procedure, addressing rhythm control and stroke prevention in a single setting.
The convergent procedure is a hybrid treatment for patients with persistent or longstanding persistent AFib who have not responded to medication or catheter ablation alone. It combines minimally invasive surgical ablation on the outside of the heart with catheter-based ablation inside the heart, coordinated by electrophysiologists and cardiac surgeons.
Left atrial appendage (LAA) closure procedures help reduce stroke risk in patients with non-valvular AFib who are unable to take long-term blood thinners. Using minimally invasive procedures such as the WATCHMAN™ device, heart specialists close off the LAA to prevent blood clots from entering the bloodstream and causing a stroke.
Your cardiologist may recommend medications to help manage your heart condition. Mediation may be used to lower blood pressure, prevent blood clots, lower cholesterol and more.
Device-based therapies
CRT helps the heart beat in a more coordinated way in select patients with heart failure and electrical conduction delays.
ICDs protect patients at risk for life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias by continuously monitoring heart rhythm and delivering therapy when dangerous rhythms occur.
Lead extraction is a specialized procedure used to safely remove one or more pacemaker or ICD leads when they become infected, damaged, or no longer function properly, or when device upgrades are needed. The procedure is performed by experienced electrophysiology teams using advanced tools and imaging.
Small, self-contained devices implanted directly inside the heart without leads.
- Ventricular leadless pacemakers treat slow heart rates originating in the lower chambers.
- Atrial leadless pacemakers help coordinate upper-chamber pacing in select patients and may be used alone or in combination with ventricular leadless devices.
Leadless pacemakers reduce the risk of lead-related complications and are appropriate for select patients.
Pacemakers help treat slow heart rhythms and heart block by maintaining an appropriate heart rate.
Placed under the skin without leads inside the heart or blood vessels. S-ICDs reduce the risk of bloodstream or lead-related complications and are appropriate for select patients who do not need pacing.
Surgical maze procedures may be performed for complex or longstanding AFib, either as a standalone treatment or during other heart surgery.
Traditional ICDs implanted under the skin with leads placed inside the heart.
Traditional pacemakers placed under the skin with leads that travel through veins into the heart.
Clinical trials
Our electrophysiologists participate in cardiovascular research and clinical trials aimed at improving arrhythmia care, treatment strategies, and long-term outcomes.
Get a second opinion
Decisions about your heart care are important. Getting a second opinion not only provides more information about your condition, but it can help you feel more confident in the doctor and the care plan you choose. Consider getting a second opinion if:
- Your diagnosis or prognosis is unclear
- You’ve been told you have a rare or life-threatening condition
- You would like to explore other treatment options
- Your treatment options are costly or risky
- You want to hear an opinion from another specialist
- Your insurance requires a second opinion
How to get care
To make an appointment, a referral should be made by your primary care doctor or another specialist. Once the referral is received and reviewed, you will be contacted to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist.
If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, go directly to the ER or call 911.
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