What Sinus Tachycardia Looks Like on Your Watch ECG

Sinus Tachycardia ECG
Qaly Heart
Qaly is built by Stanford engineers and cardiologists, including Dr. Marco Perez, a Stanford Associate Professor of Medicine, Stanford Cardiac Electrophysiologist, and Co-PI of the Apple Heart Study.

Key Takeaways

  • Sinus Tachycardia is a heart rhythm in which the electrical signal from the heart's sinus node, its natural pacemaker, occurs more than 100 times per minute, resulting in a heart rate above 100 beats per minute (bpm). A normal heart rate typically falls within 60-100 bpm.
  • To recognize Sinus Tachycardia on your watch ECG, look for normal and constant P Waves and PR Intervals, along with a heart rate above 100 bpm.
  • Sinus Tachycardia is normal and expected during physical activities, fever, stress, or caffeine consumption. However, if your heart rate increases past 100 bpm without an apparent reason, it may indicate Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia, which requires further evaluation by a healthcare provider to rule out any underlying conditions.

Got other questions on Sinus Tachycardia? See the Qaly guides on Sinus Tachycardia:

Introduction

Hello, heart hero. In your quest to identify that irregular heart rhythm you just felt, you may have come across the term Sinus Tachycardia. With your trusty watch ECG now in hand, you may be wondering, "What does Sinus Tachycardia look like on my watch ECG?" In this guide, we'll help you see Sinus Tachycardia on your watch ECG. Let's dive in.

What's Sinus Tachycardia?

Before trying to identify Sinus Tachycardia on your ECG, it's helpful to remind yourself what Sinus Tachycardia actually is. (If you're confident in your Sinus Tachycardia knowledge, though, skip on ahead to the next section for some visual examples of a Sinus Tachycardia ECG).

To start, remember how your heart beats? It produces an electrical signal, which squeezes and unsqueezes your heart, which in turn pumps your blood to your lungs for oxygen and then out to the rest of your body.

With Sinus Tachycardia, that electrical signal is produced from your heart's "sinus node" as it should be. You can think of your heart's sinus node as your heart's natural pacemaker.

But with Sinus Tachycardia, that electrical impulse from your sinus node is happening more than 100 times per minute, or in other words, at a heart rate of more than 100 beats-per-minute (bpm).

A normal heart rate typically falls within 60-100 bpm.

So What Does Sinus Tachycardia Look Like on My Watch ECG?

To identify Sinus Tachycardia on your ECG, look for these tell-tale signs:

For visual examples, take a look at Sinus Tachycardia seen on Qaly members' watch ECGs.

Here's Sinus Tachycardia caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG. Note the heart rate above 100 bpm and the normal PR Interval.
Here's Sinus Tachycardia caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG. Note the heart rate above 100 bpm and the normal PR Interval.

Here's another Sinus Tachycardia caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG. Note here, too, that the heart rate is greater than 100 bpm.
Here's another Sinus Tachycardia caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG. Note here, too, that the heart rate is greater than 100 bpm.

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Here's a third Sinus Tachycardia caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG.
Here's a third Sinus Tachycardia caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG.

Is Sinus Tachycardia a Cause for Concern?

You've likely noticed your smartwatch ECG showing a high heart rate reading when you run, do a HIIT workout, have a fever, experience pain or stress, or just caffeinated with a cup of coffee. In these situations, Sinus Tachycardia is normal and often expected, which is why it's also called Normal Sinus Tachycardia when you know the cause of your elevated heart rate. However, if your heart rate randomly shoots up past 100 bpm for no apparent reason, this may be a sign of Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia. Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia is when you aren't able to identify the cause of your increased heart rate, like when you're resting on your couch with a smile and your heart rate randomly shoots up.

As always, if you show signs of Sinus Tachycardia, contact your healthcare provider immediately to rule out the presence of harmful underlying conditions.

Conclusion

Well, that just about wraps up our guide on what Sinus Tachycardia looks like on your watch ECG. We hope this could be of some help to you.

If you still need help interpreting your ECGs, don't worry, we understand how scary and confusing it can be to experience irregular heartbeats. That's why we created the Qaly app for you and for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who live with heart palpitations and abnormal heart rhythms. On the Qaly app, human experts will interpret your ECGs within minutes for clarity and peace of mind.

To get started with the Qaly app, grab the Qaly app from the App Store or Play Store today. If you have any more questions, or if you need our help in any other way, don't hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].

As always from the team at Qaly, stay heart healthy ❤️

Wondering if it's Sinus Tachycardia? On the Qaly app, human experts will interpret your ECGs for Sinus Tachycardia within minutes. Get started today.

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Wondering if it's Sinus Tachycardia? On the Qaly app, human experts will interpret your ECGs for Sinus Tachycardia within minutes. Get started today.

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