Cardiac arrhythmias detection in an ECG beat signal using fast fourier transform and artificial neural network

Cardiac Arrhythmias shows a condition of abnor-mal electrical activity in the heart which is a threat to humans. This paper presents a method to analyze electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, extract the fea-tures, for the classification of heart beats according to different arrhythmias. Data were obtained from 40 records of the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database (only one lead). Cardiac arrhythmias which are found are Tachycardia, Bradycardia, Supraventricular Tachycardia, Incomplete Bundle Branch Block, Bundle Branch Block, Ventricular Tachycardia. A learning dataset for the neural network was obtained from a twenty records set which were manually classified using MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database Directory and docu- mentation, taking advantage of the professional experience of a cardiologist. Fast Fourier transforms are used to identify the peaks in the ECG signal and then Neural Networks are applied to identify the diseases. Levenberg Marquardt Back-Propagation algorithm is used to train the network. The results obtained have better efficiency then the previously proposed methods.

Cardiac arrhythmias and cardiac arrest related to mushroom poisoning: A case report

BACKGROUND Mushroom exposure is a global health issue.The manifestations of mushroom poisoning (MP) may vary.Some species have been reported as rhabdomyolytic,hallucinogenic,or gastrointestinal poisons.Critical or even fatal MPs are mostly attributable to Amanita phalloides,with the development of severe liver or renal failure.Myocardial injury and even cases mimicking ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have been previously reported,while cardiac arrhythmia or cardiac arrest is not commonly seen.CASE SUMMARY We report a 68-year-old woman with MP who suffered from delirium,seizure,long QT syndrome on electrocardiogram (ECG),severe cardiac arrhythmias of multiple origins,and cardiac arrest.She was intubated and put on blood perfusion.Her kidney and liver functions were intact;creatine kinase-MB was mildly elevated,and then fell within normal range during her hospital stay.We sent the mushrooms she left for translation elongation factor subunit 1α,ribosomal RNA gene sequence,and internal transcribed spacer sequence analyses.There were four kinds of mushrooms identified,two of which were found to be toxic.CONCLUSION This is the first time that we found cardiac toxicity caused by Panaeolus subbalteatus and Conocybe lactea,which were believed to be toxic to the liver,kidney,and brain.We suggest that intensive monitoring and ECG follow-up are essential to diagnose prolonged QT interval and different forms of tachycardia in MP patients,even without the development of severe liver or renal failure.The mechanisms need to be further investigated and clarified based on animal experiments and molecular signal pathways.

Associations between cardiac arrhythmia,incident disability in activities of daily living and physical performance:the ILSA study

Background Cardiac arrhythmias are common conditions in older people.Unfortunately,there is limited literature on associations between cardiac arrhythmias and physical performance or disability.We therefore aimed to prospectively investigate associations between cardiac arrhythmias and changes in disability and physical performance during 8 years of follow-up,using data from the Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging(ILSA).Methods Cardiac arrhythmias diagnosis was posed through a screening phase,confirmed by a physician.The onset of disability in activities of daily living(ADL)and the changes in several physical performance tests during follow-up were considered as outcomes.Fully-adjusted and propensity-score Cox Proportional Hazard models and mixed models were used for exploring associations between cardiac arrhythmia and the outcomes of interest.Results The prevalence of cardiac arrhythmia at baseline was 23.3%.People reporting cardiac arrhythmia at the baseline were significantly older,more frequently male,smokers and reported a higher presence of all medical conditions investigated(hypertension,heart failure,angina,myocardial infarction,diabetes,stroke),but no difference in dementia,Parkinsonism,cognitive or mood disorder.Cardiac arrhythmia at baseline was significantly associated with the incidence of disability in ADL(HR=1.23;95%:CI:1.01–1.50;P=0.0478 in propensity score analyses;HR=1.28;95%CI:1.01–1.61;P=0.0401 in fully adjusted models).Cardiac arrhythmia at baseline was also associated with a significant worsening in balance test(P=0.0436).Conclusions The presence of cardiac arrhythmia at baseline was associated with a significant higher risk of disability and of worsening in some physical performance tests,particularly those relating to balance.Screening and frequently assessing physical performance in older people affected by cardiac arrhythmia can be important to prevent a loss of physical performance,with further,potential,complications of medical management.

Cardiac autonomic nerve distribution and arrhythmia

OBJECTIVE： To analyze the distribution characteristics of cardiac autonomic nerves and to explore the correlation between cardiac autonomic nerve distribution and arrhythmia. DATA RETRIEVAL： A computer-based retrieval was performed for papers examining the distribution of cardiac autonomic nerves, using “heart, autonomic nerve, sympathetic nerve, vagus nerve, nerve distribution, rhythm and atrial fibrillation” as the key words. SELECTION CRITERIA： A total of 165 studies examining the distribution of cardiac autonomic nerve were screened, and 46 of them were eventually included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： The distribution and characteristics of cardiac autonomic nerves were observed, and immunohistochemical staining was applied to determine the levels of tyrosine hydroxylase and acetylcholine transferase （main markers of cardiac autonomic nerve distribution）. In addition, the correlation between cardiac autonomic nerve distribution and cardiac arrhythmia was investigated. RESULTS： Cardiac autonomic nerves were reported to exhibit a disordered distribution in different sites, mainly at the surface of the cardiac atrium and pulmonary vein, forming a ganglia plexus. The distribution of the pulmonary vein autonomic nerve was prominent at the proximal end rather than the distal end, at the upper left rather than the lower right, at the epicardial membrane rather than the endocardial membrane, at the left atrium rather than the right atrium, and at the posterior wall rather than the anterior wall. The main markers used for cardiac autonomic nerves were tyrosine hydroxylase and acetylcholine transferase. Protein gene product 9.5 was used to label the immunoreactive nerve distribution, and the distribution density of autonomic nerves was determined using a computer-aided morphometric analysis system. CONCLUSION： The uneven distribution of the cardiac autonomic nerves is the leading cause of the occurrence of arrhythmia, and the cardiac autonomic nerves play an important role in the occurrence, maintenance, and symptoms of arrhythmia.

CARDIAC ARRHYTHMIA AFTER LUNG CANCER SURGERY －－ANALYSIS OF 140 PNEUMONECTTOMY CASES

Among 808 surgically resected lung cancer cases at Shanghai Chest Hospital during 1991 to 1992, 140 of them (17.3%) underwent Pneumonectomy. Of the 140 cases:124 male, 16 female; aged 27-74 yrs, 35.7% elder (60 and over), preoperative abnormal EKG was found in 38 cases, operative mortality was 4.3%. The histopathological diagnosis were: squamous 43.6%, adeno. 36.4%, small cell 8.6%, mixed type 11.4%. The pTNM stages: stage I 2.9%, II 17.1%, IIIa 55.0%, IIIb 21.4%, IV 3.6%.Postoperatively, arrhythmia occuried in 76 cases, with an incidence of 54.3%. Of the 76 arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation was seen in 7 patients, atrial premature beats in 2, supraventricular tachycardia in 1, and sinus tachycardia in 66. The incidences of cadiac arrhythmia during the postoperative day (DO), first day (D1), D2, D3,and D4 were 48.7%, 35.5%, 7.9%, 4.0%and 2.6%respectively. Conclusion: the cardiac arrhythmia is the most common complication after pneumonectomy for lung cancer surgery. The major causes were incisional pain, hypovolemia due to blood loss and respirative insufficiency due to anomia. The perioperative prevention and treatment for arrhythmia were also discussed.

Cardiac Arrhythmia Disease Classifier Model Based on a Fuzzy Fusion Approach

Cardiac diseases are one of the greatest global health challenges.Due to the high annual mortality rates,cardiac diseases have attracted the attention of numerous researchers in recent years.This article proposes a hybrid fuzzy fusion classification model for cardiac arrhythmia diseases.The fusion model is utilized to optimally select the highest-ranked features generated by a variety of well-known feature-selection algorithms.An ensemble of classifiers is then applied to the fusion’s results.The proposed model classifies the arrhythmia dataset from the University of California,Irvine into normal/abnormal classes as well as 16 classes of arrhythmia.Initially,at the preprocessing steps,for the miss-valued attributes,we used the average value in the linear attributes group by the same class and the most frequent value for nominal attributes.However,in order to ensure the model optimality,we eliminated all attributes which have zero or constant values that might bias the results of utilized classifiers.The preprocessing step led to 161 out of 279 attributes(features).Thereafter,a fuzzy-based feature-selection fusion method is applied to fuse high-ranked features obtained from different heuristic feature-selection algorithms.In short,our study comprises three main blocks:(1)sensing data and preprocessing;(2)feature queuing,selection,and extraction;and(3)the predictive model.Our proposed method improves classification performance in terms of accuracy,F1measure,recall,and precision when compared to state-of-the-art techniques.It achieves 98.5%accuracy for binary class mode and 98.9%accuracy for categorized class mode.

Cardiac arrhythmia and heart failure： From bench to bedside

Cardiac arrhythmia is an abnormal rate and/or rhythm of a heart due to its abnormal electrical impulse origination and/or propagation. Various etiologies can cause arrhythmias. Heart failure （HF） is a clinical syndrome due to an impaired heart that can not pump sufficient blood to meet the systemic metabolic needs.

Amiodarone Therapy for Cardiac Arrhythmias: Is It Associated with the Development of Cancers?

Amiodarone is used worldwide to treat cardiac arrhythmias, as well as highly symptomatic cases of atrial fibrillation. With this expanded use, especially following its 1985 United States Food and Drug Administration approval, and its use as a long-term therapy in common practice, reports of cancers temporarily related to amiodarone have begun to increase. Animal studies, several clinical trials, numerous case reports, and a population-based cohort study have suggested that cancers may be associated with amiodarone use. This review focuses on the ever increasing evidence in the literature that suggests amiodarone therapy, especially with long-term use, may increase the potential risk of cancer development. It also expresses the need for more definitive studies to be conducted to provide clinicians with a clear answer to this important question.

Spontaneous type 1 pattern, ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in Brugada Syndrome： an updated systematic review and meta-analysis

Brugada syndrome （BrS） is primary electrical disorder characterized by ST segment elevation with right bundle branch block morphology in patients with apparent structurally normal hearts, It predisposes affected individuals to ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation （VT/VF） and sudden cardiac death （SCD）.A number of studies have identified risk factors that are associated with a more malignant course of disease. These include male gender, syncope, a spontaneous type 1 ECG pattern, family history of SCD, family history of Brugada syndrome,

Short-term exposure to ambient ozone associated with cardiac arrhythmias in healthy adults

Objective The exact biological mechanism whereby exposure to ambient ozone(O3)may contribute to clinical onset of cardiovascular events remains unclear.In this study,we aim to examine the impacts of O3 exposure on cardiac arrhythmias and potential pathways involved through autonomic dysfunction and myocardial injury.Methods Seventy-three non-smoking healthy adults were followed with 4 repeated measurements of 24-hour ambulatory arrhythmias,heart rate variability,ST-segment deviation,and blood pressure(BP)in Beijing,China,2014‒2016.Generalized additive mixed models coupled with distributed lag nonlinear models were constructed to evaluate the associations and potential interlinks between O3 exposure and outcome measurements.Results During the study period,24-hour average concentrations of ambient O3 were 47.4µg/m3(ranging from 1.0 to 165.9µg/m3).Increased risks of premature ventricular contraction and ventricular tachycardia were associated with interquartile range increases in O3 exposure during the last 5 days before each participant's clinic visit,with relative risks of 2.14(95%confidence interval[CI]:1.95 to 2.32)and 5.47(95%CI:3.51 to 7.43),respectively.Mediation analyses further showed that sympathetic activation,parasympathetic inhibition,and elevated BP levels,as well as heightened risks of ST-segment depression could mediate up to 47.74%of the risks of arrhythmias attributable to O3 exposure.Conclusion Our results suggest that short-term exposure to ambient O3 could prompt the genesis of arrhythmias partially through worsening autonomic function and myocardial burden.

Ambient Particulate Matter Pollution and Hospital Visits for Cardiac Arrhythmia in Beijing,China

Cardiac arrhythmia is a serious public health problem in many countries.Previous studies estimated that 33.5 million people are affected by cardiac arrhythmia worldwide,and this number will continue to grow as society ages.Despite improvements in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in electrophysiology,the disease burden,incidence and prevalence of cardiac arrhythmia continue to increase and have aroused public health concern.Increasing evidence has indicated that air pollution may be associated with cardiac autonomic nervous system.Among air pollutants,particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of≤2.5μm(PM_(2.5))is considered exert more toxicity than other air pollutants,as it provides a larger surface area and absorbs or condenses more toxic substances per unit mass.

Wenxin granule for cardiac arrhythmia: an overview of systematic reviews

Objectives: Evaluating the quality of systematic reviews/meta-analysis of Wenxin granule in treating cardiac arrhythmia to provide evidence for clinical practice, and analyzing the problems in the research to identify potential research priorities for researchers. Method: The systematic reviews of Wenxin granule in treating cardiac arrhythmia were searched from 8 databases. The methodological quality and evidence quality were assessed by AMSTAR and GRADE respectively. Results: Nineteen eligible systematic reviews with 52,905 participants were included. The overall scores of AMSTAR ranged from 3 to 10 with a mean score of 6.5, the median score was 6. There were 9 (9/19, 47.37%) systematic reviews had the score of 7 or more. 6 of them with appropriate information were assessed the quality of evidence by GRADE. The results showed that the overall quality of evidence was limited (range from “very low” to “low”), no “moderate” or “high” quality of evidence existed. For the outcome reporting, no systematic reviews reported endpoints and limited evidence showed that there is causality between Wenxin granule and adverse effects/events. The outcome matrix showed that there are obvious heterogeneity and incompleteness for the outcome reporting in included systematic reviews, so that some included studies cannot be conducted meta-analysis. Meanwhile, there were studies excluded because of inappropriate outcome measures, such as outcome measures did not meet inclusion criteria, treatment time did not meet inclusion criteria, treatment time was unclear, incomplete data or the data cannot be extracted. Conclusions: Wenxin granule have limited efficacy and safety for treating arrhythmia. In the future, high quality of RCTs and systematic reviews should be conducted. Core outcome set for cardiac arrhythmia is needed to improve outcome reporting and decrease waste.

Control of cardiac excitability and arrhythmias by microRNAs

Recent studies revealing the important roles of microRNAs（miRNAs） in regulating expression of ion channel genes have opened up a research field for extending and deepening our investi- gation into the cardiac excitability and the associated arrhythmogenesis.Cardiac excitability,the fundamental property of the cardiac myocytes,defines the cardiac conduction,repolarization,automaticity,intracellular calcium handling,and their regional heterogeneity. Our previous and ongoing studies and the work from other laboratories have demonstrated the significant involvement of miRNAs in regulating every aspects of cardiac excitability.We have found earlier that the muscle-specific miRNA miR-1 boosts up the arrhythmogenic potential through targeting gap junction channel connexin 43 in myocardial infarction.A subsequent study revealed that miR-1 can also cause arrhythmias by impairing Ca2+ handling by targeting phosphatase.We then identified another muscle-specific miRNA miR-133 promotes abnormal QT prolongation by repressing HERG K+ channel expression in diabetic cardiomyopathy. Subsequently,we discovered that both miR- 1 and miR-133 are involved in the reexpression of pacemaker channels HCN2/HCN4 to enhance abnormal automaticity in cardiac hypertrophy.Recently, we further identified miR-328 as an important determinant for atrial fibrillation（AF） and the associated adverse atrial electrical remodeling via targeting L-type Ca2+ channels.While all the above-mentioned miRNAs are proarrhythmic,we have newly identified for the first time a natural antiarrhythmic miRNA miR-26.We found that all three members of the miR-26 family is downregulated in their expression in AF tissues and this downregulation increases AF vulnerability as a result of removal of an endogenous antiarrhythmic factor.miR-26 downregulation shortens atrial action potential favoring AF by increasing inward rectifier K+ current（IK1） density. This is caused by an upregulation of Kir2.1 K+ channel subunit due to derepression of its encoding gene KCNJ2 as we have validated KCNJ2 as a target gene for miR-26.Administration of a LNA-modified antimiR-26 antisense through tail vein injection increases AF vulnerability as indicated by increased number of mice with AF induction by intracardiac pacing.And this effect is blunted by co-injection of either an adenovirus vector carrying miR-26 precursor sequence or a LNA-modified miR-26 mimic to specifically target KCNJ2.We further discovered that the activity of NFAT transcription factor is enhanced in AF which represses the transcription of miR-26. We characterized the promoter region of the host genes of all three members of the miR-26 miRNA family and identified a common cis-acting element for NFAT binding.Thus,our study unraveled a novel miRNA signaling pathway AF NFAT miR-26 KC-NJ2 /Kir2.1/IK1 AF as a positive feedback loop favoring AF and the remodeling process.

Evaluation of the Effect of Irbesartan Combined with PMA on Arrhythmia and Cardiac Function in Patients with Rheumatic Heart Disease

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of irbesartan combined with potassium magnesium aspartate(PMA)in the treatment of rheumatic heart disease.Methods:A total of 316 patients with rheumatic heart disease who were treated in our hospital during the period of March 2018 to January 2021 were selected as the research objects.According to the different treatment methods,they were divided into group A(treatment with irbesartan only)and group B(Using Irbesartan combined with PMA treatment),analyze and compare the cardiac function,diastolic blood pressure,systolic blood pressure,heart rate and clinical treatment effect of the two groups of patients after treatment.Results:After treatment,the left ventricular end-systolic diameter(LVESD),left atrial diameter(LAD),and left ventricular end-diastolic diameter(LVEDD)of the two groups were significantly lower than before treatment,and left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF)was significantly higher than after treatment,(P<0.05),and the improvement of the above indicators in group B was significantly better than that of group A,(P<0.05).After treatment,the diastolic blood pressure,systolic blood pressure and heart rate of group B were significantly lower than those of group A,(P<0.05);the total effective rate of treatment in group B(87.4%)was higher than that of group A(76.3%),(P<0.05).Conclusion:Irbesartan combined with PMA in the treatment of rheumatic heart disease has a better clinical effect than irbesartan alone.It can promote the reconstruction of ventricular function,improve the clinical symptoms of patients,prevent heart failure,and can effectively promote the recovery of cardiac function in patients.

Ventricular Arrhythmia in the Fontan Circulation:Prevalence,Risk Factors and Clinical Implications

Objective:Sudden cardiac death(SCD)and malignant ventricular arrhythmia(VA)are increasingly recognized as important issues for people living with a Fontan circulation,but data are lacking.We sought to characterize the cohort who had sudden cardiac death,most likely related to VA and/or documented VA in the Australia and New Zealand Fontan Registry including risk factors and clinical outcomes.Methods:A retrospective cohort study was performed.Inclusion criteria were documented non-sustained ventricular tachycardia,sustained ventricular tachycardia,ventricular fibrillation,resuscitated cardiac arrest or SCD>30 days post-Fontan completion.Results:Of 1611 patients,20(1.2%)had VA;14(1.0%)had VA without SCD and 6(<1%)had SCD(6%of all deaths recorded in Registry;5 of those had documented VA at the time of arrest and 1 was presumed to be VA-associated).The median age at first VA was 20.5(14–32)years,10(50%)were females,and the median age at Fontan operation was 8(4–17)years.On univariable analysis,hypoplastic left heart syndrome(p=0.03)and older age Fontan operation(p<0.001)were associated with VA.Earlier Fontan era(p<0.003),atriopulmonary Fontan(p<0.001),pre-Fontan atrioventricular valve repair(p=0.013)pre-or post-Fontan atrial arrhythmia(p=0.010)were associated with SCD.Patients with VA had a 3 times higher risk of death or heart transplant(HR 3.27(1.19,8.98),p=0.02).Conclusions:A proportion of people living with a Fontan circulation have malignant VA.Routine VA screening in this cohort is essential.More data are needed to aid risk stratification.

Arrhythmia risk in liver cirrhosis

Interactions between the functioning of the heart and the liver have been described, with heart diseases affecting the liver, liver diseases affecting the heart, and conditions that simultaneously affect both. The heart is one of the most adversely affected organs in patients with liver cirrhosis. For example, arrhythmias and electrocardiographic changes are observed in patients with liver cirrhosis. The risk for arrhythmia is influenced by factors such as cirrhotic cardiomyopathy, cardiac ion channel remodeling, electrolyte imbalances,impaired autonomic function, hepatorenal syndrome, metabolic abnormalities, advanced age, inflammatory syndrome, stressful events, impaired drug metabolism and comorbidities. Close monitoring of cirrhotic patients is needed for arrhythmias, particularly when QT intervalprolonging drugs are given, or if electrolyte imbalances or hepatorenal syndrome appear. Arrhythmia risk may persist after liver transplantation due to possible QT interval prolongation, persistence of the parasympathetic impairment, post-transplant reperfusion and chronic immunosuppression, as well as consideration of the fact that the transplant itself is a stressful event for the cardiovascular system. The aims of the present article were to provide a review of the most important data regarding the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and biomarkers of arrhythmia risk in patients with liver cirrhosis, to elucidate the association with long-term outcome, and to propose future research directions.

Dysglycemia and arrhythmias

Disorders in glucose metabolism can be divided into three separate but interrelated domains,namely hyperglycemia,hypoglycemia,and glycemic variability.Intensive glycemic control in patients with diabetes might increase the risk of hypoglycemic incidents and glucose fluctuations.These three dysglycemic states occur not only amongst patients with diabetes,but are frequently present in other clinical settings,such as during critically ill.A growing body of evidence has focused on the relationships between these dysglycemic domains with cardiac arrhythmias,including supraventricular arrhythmias(primarily atrial fibrillation),ventricular arrhythmias(malignant ventricular arrhythmias and QT interval prolongation),and bradyarrhythmias(bradycardia and heart block).Different mechanisms by which these dysglycemic states might provoke cardiac arrhythmias have been identified in experimental studies.A customized glycemic control strategy to minimize the risk of hyperglycemia,hypoglycemia and glucose variability is of the utmost importance in order to mitigate the risk of cardiac arrhythmias.

Inherited arrhythmias and gene therapy: Are there any ethical considerations to take into account?

Interventional electrophysiology represents a relatively recent subspecialty within the field of cardiology.In the past half-century,there has been significant advan-cement in the development and implementation of innovative ablation treatments and approaches.However,the treatment of arrhythmias continues to be inade-quate.Several arrhythmias,such as ventricular tachycardia and atrial fibrillation,pose significant challenges in terms of therapeutic efficacy,whether through interventional procedures or the administration of antiarrhythmic drugs.Cardio-logists are engaged in ongoing research to explore innovative methodologies,such as genome editing,with the purpose of effectively managing arrhythmias and meeting the growing needs of patients afflicted with rhythm disturbances.The field of genome editing has significant promise and has the potential to serve as a highly effective personalized therapy for rhythm disorders in patients.However,several ethical issues must be considered.

Athletes and Arrhythmias

Sudden cardiac death related to athletic competition is a rare but tragic event.The victims are typically young with no previous cardiovascular symptoms or limitations.The majority of sudden cardiac death events in athletes are due to ventricular arrhythmias as a result of underlying molecular and/or structural level pathologic substrate.In this article,we will review the physiologic cardiac adaptations to exercise along with arrhythmias seen in athletes with a focus on those commonly associated with sudden cardiac death.

Transient ventricular arrhythmia as a rare cause of dizziness during exercise:A case report

BACKGROUND Dizziness is a common symptom in adults and usually due to peripheral causes affecting semicircular canal function or central causes affecting the pons,medulla,or cerebellum.Arrhythmia is a recognized cause of dizziness in people with structural or ischemic heart disease.We report a case of exercise-induced transient ventricular tachycardia and dizziness in a man with no evidence of organic heart disease.CASE SUMMARY A 42-year-old man presented with a 6 mo history of transient exercise-induced dizziness and prodromal palpitations.The patient was otherwise asymptomatic.Physical examination,otoscopy,vestibular tests,cerebellar tests,laboratory investigations,and imaging investigations were all unremarkable.Twenty-four hour Holter monitoring revealed four episodes of transient ventricular tachycardia during exercise.The patient was started on metoprolol and subsequently underwent radiofrequency catheter ablation.The patient reported a full recovery and no dizziness during daily activities.These results were maintained at the 6 mo follow-up.CONCLUSION Ventricular tachycardia is an uncommon but potentially serious cause of dizziness.The outcome of this case illustrates the benefits of careful clinical examination and communication with specialized centers.High clinical suspicion of arrhythmia in a patient with dizziness merits consultation with a cardiologist and referral to a specialized center to ensure timely diagnosis and treatment.