Ectopic Atrial Tachycardia (EAT) in Children

• Palpitations (the feeling of a rapid or erratic heartbeat while sitting quietly or at rest, or a faster than normal heart rate during exercise)
• Dizziness
• Turning pale
• Fainting (syncope)
• Chest pain or discomfort
• Shortness of breath
• Heart pounding
• Feeling pulsations in the throat
• Infants and toddlers may have poor feeding with fussiness, sweating, or changes in color

Some patients with EAT may not experience any symptoms at all and are only diagnosed incidentally while being evaluated for some other reason

EAT is diagnosed when it is seen on a heart rhythm recording. Your EP team may use one or multiple tools to help diagnose EAT similar to how other forms of SVT are diagnosed. These could include, but are not limited to:

• ECG
• Holter monitor
• Event monitor
• Home wearable monitor such as a smartwatch

Sometimes, patients with EAT can develop cardiomyopathy, or a weakened ability of the heart to pump blood effectively. Patients who are diagnosed with unexplained cardiomyopathy at first may end up being found during their cardiac evaluation to also have EAT.

Your EP team may prescribe medication for the treatment of EAT. Medication is not a cure but can decrease the number of episodes and help to control symptoms. The most common type of medication used for EAT is beta-blockers, but other kinds of medication can be used if beta-blockers are not effective enough. Depending on the medication being used, your child may need to be admitted to the hospital when starting treatment or changing doses.

In the case of infants and very young children, sometimes the spot in the heart causing the EAT will eventually "burn out" and the arrhythmia will go away on its own. These patients may take medications for years and then be carefully weaned off their medications with close monitoring by their cardiologist to make sure the arrhythmia doesn’t come back.

Many patients with EAT will need to or may choose to have an ablation, which is a procedure designed to eliminate the spot in the heart causing the EAT. If this is successful, the procedure cures the patient of their EAT without the need for medication going forward. However, in order to find where the EAT is coming from in the heart, your EP team will need to see the EAT active during the procedure. The spots in the heart that cause EAT frequently "go to sleep" with general anesthesia, so the chance of successfully ablating the EAT is highest when the patient is in a lighter state called "conscious sedation" or has no sedation or anesthesia at all. Since small children require general anesthesia to undergo an ablation, your EP team may have your child take medications to control their EAT until they are old enough to attempt an ablation with conscious sedation.

Some patients and families may choose not to take medications and not undergo an ablation procedure. This decision should be discussed closely with your treatment team.

EAT is typically triggered by various forms of stress on the body, so patients are generally advised to avoid known triggers. This typically means limiting the amount of caffeine in their diet and maintaining proper hydration and nutrition. Sometimes, fever can trigger episodes of EAT, so parents may be advised to treat fever aggressively with over-the-counter medications or to monitor patients with fever very closely for symptoms of EAT.

Activity restrictions are generally not required for patients with EAT unless exercise is known to specifically trigger the patient's EAT or cause more severe symptoms.