Detecting danger: Remote cardiovascular monitoring sounds the alarm on a critical condition
Patient Spotlight
Looking back, Dan O’Bryan now can see the connection between his dizzy spells and episodes of lightheadedness during spring 2021, and the slow heart rate and atrial fibrillation diagnoses that led him to have a pacemaker implanted in his chest.
At the time, however, he didn’t realize that his symptoms were anything to worry about. “I didn’t think too much about it,” Dan says. “I was just having these off-and-on feelings of dizziness once in a while — mostly when I’d get up and walk across a room or while out in the garden. Sometimes it was also associated with heat.”
But when Dan told his primary care doctor at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, that the dizzy spells occurred even while he was sitting and watching television, the seriousness of his symptoms began to come into full view.
Working with his health care team, Dan underwent a mobile cardiac telemetry test with Mayo Clinic Monitoring Solutions. That test quickly revealed the seriousness of Dan’s condition.
This story is part of the Patient Spotlight series that showcases the connection between the work done at Mayo Clinic Laboratories and its benefits to patients.
