Patient Education | Cardiac Rhythm Specialists

Patient education

Learn about how the heart works, the electrical system that times each beat, and illustrated booklets recovered from the original Cardiac Rhythm Specialists website.

Educational topics

Basic Cardiology
This page introduces how the heart pumps blood and how its electrical system times each beat. It is for general education and is not a diagnosis. Cardiac Rhythm Specialists in Reseda can help if you have questions after reading.
The Normal Heart
The heart is a muscle about the size of a clenched fist. It pumps blood every second of every day. Circulating blood delivers oxygen and nutrients and carries waste toward the kidneys, liver, and lungs. Three components work together: structure, electrical system, and circulation.
Electrical System
The electrical system coordinates pumping of the four chambers and controls heart rate so the heart can speed up or slow down as the body’s needs change. A problem anywhere along this path can cause an arrhythmia.
Ejection Fraction
Ejection fraction (EF) is the percentage of blood pumped out of a ventricle with each heartbeat. It is a common measure of how well the heart muscle is squeezing. An echocardiogram is often used to estimate EF.
Useful Resources
The prior Cardiac Rhythm Specialists website listed a few external education links. Those addresses may be outdated or no longer appropriate to recommend. This page is conservative on purpose. Ask the office if you want current reading suggestions.

Illustrated booklets

These booklets previously required Flash. They are now available as accessible page sequences. The artwork is educational and may reflect older material.

Atrial Fibrillation Booklet
Accessible page-by-page images from the practice’s former Flash atrial fibrillation booklet. The images are educational illustrations, not a diagnosis or a treatment plan.
Common Arrhythmias Booklet
Accessible page-by-page images from the former Flash common-arrhythmias booklet. Use the condition pages on this site for modernized wording; these scans preserve the original illustrated sequence.
Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Booklet
Accessible page-by-page images from the former Flash CRT booklet. CRT candidacy is individualized; ask a physician before treating any booklet page as personal advice.
Heart Failure Booklet
Accessible page-by-page images from the former Flash heart-failure booklet. Heart-failure care is coordinated by your physicians; these pages are historical educational art, not current instructions.

Multimedia education

A topic list from the original education library, with links to current pages, is on the multimedia library page.

Videos, presentations, and articles

Educational videos from Dr. Polosajian, historical presentations, and a recovered magazine article are collected on the media library.