is a group of conditions in which the
Muscle Contraction of the heart is irregular or is faster or slower than normal. '''Cardiac dysrhythmia''' is technically more correct, as arrhythmia would imply that there is "no rhythm," but this term is not used frequently.
Some arrhythmias are life-threatening
Medical Emergencies that can cause cardiac arrest and sudden death. Others cause aggravating symptoms, such as an awareness of a different heart beat, or
Palpitation , which can be annoying. Some are quite benign and normal. Sinus arrhythmia is the mild acceleration followed by slowing of the normal rhythm that occurs with breathing. In adults the normal heart rate ranges from 60 beats per minute to 100 beats per minute. The normal heart beat is controlled by a small area in the upper chamber of the heart called the sinus node. The sinus node contains specialized cells that have spontaneous electrical activity that starts each normal heart beat.
A heart rate faster than 100 beats/minute is considered a
Tachycardia . With exercise the sinus node increases its rate of electrical activity to accelerate the heart rate. The normal fast rate that develops is called sinus tachycardia. Arrhythmias that are due to fast, abnormal electrical activity can cause tachycardias that are dangerous. If the
Ventricles of the heart experiences one of these tachycardias for a long period of time, there can be
Deleterious effects. Individuals may sense a tachycardia as a pounding sensation of the heart, known as
Palpitations . If a tachycardia lowers blood pressure it may cause lightheadedness or dizzinesses, or even fainting (
Syncope ). If the tachycardia is so fast that the heart can not function, it leads to death, which may occur suddenly.
Most tachycardias are not dangerous. Anything that increases adrenaline or its effects on the heart will increase the heart rate and potentially cause palpitations or tachycardias. Causes include stress, ingested or injected substances (ie:
Caffeine ,
Alcohol (see
Holiday Heart Syndrome ), and an overactive thyroid gland
Hyperthyroidism . Individuals who have a tachycardia are often advised to limit or remove exposure to any causative agent.
A slow rhythm, known as
Bradycardia (less than 60 beats/min), is usually not life threatening, but may cause symptoms. When it causes symptoms implantation of a permanent pacemaker may be needed.
Either dysrhythmia requires medical attention to evaluate the risks associated with the arrhythmia.
A serious variety of arrhythmia is known as
Fibrillation . Fibrillation occurs when the
Heart Muscle begins a quivering motion instead of a normal, healthy pumping rhythm. Fibrillation can affect the atrium (
Atrial Fibrillation ) or the ventricle (
Ventricular Fibrillation ); ventricular fibrillation is imminently life-threatening.
''Atrial fibrillation'' is the quivering, chaotic motion in the upper chambers of the heart, known as the
Atria . Atrial fibrillation is often due to serious underlying medical conditions, and should be evaluated by a
Physician . It is not typically a medical emergency.
''Ventricular fibrillation'' occurs in the
Ventricles (lower chambers) of the heart; it is always a medical emergency. If left untreated,
Ventricular Fibrillation (VF, or V-fib) can lead to death within minutes. When a heart goes into V-fib, effective pumping of the blood stops. V-fib is considered a form of
Cardiac Arrest , and an individual suffering from it will not survive unless
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and
Defibrillation are provided immediately.
CPR can prolong the survival of the
Brain in the lack of a normal pulse, but defibrillation is the intervention which is most likely to restore a more healthy heart rhythm. It does this by applying an electric shock to the heart, after which sometimes the heart will revert to a rhythm that can once again pump blood.
Almost every person goes into ventricular fibrillation in the last few minutes of life as the heart muscle reacts to diminished oxygen or general blood flow, trauma, irritants, or depression of electrical impulses themselves from the brain.
When an electrical impulse begins in any part of the heart, it will spread throughout the
Myocardium and cause a contraction; see
Electrical Conduction System Of The Heart . Abnormal impulses can begin by one of two mechanisms: automaticity or reentry.
Automaticity refers to a cardiac muscle cell firing off an impulse on its own. Every cardiac cell has this potential: if it does ''not'' receive any impulses from elsewhere, its internal "pacemaker" will fire off an impulse after a certain amount of time. A single specialized location in the atria, the
Sinoatrial Node , has a higher automaticity (a faster pacemaker) than the rest of the heart, and therefore is usually the one to start the heartbeat.
Any part of the heart that initiates an impulse without waiting for the sinoatrial node is called an ''
Ectopic focus'', and is by definition a pathological phenomenon. This may cause a single premature beat now and then, or, if the ectopic focus fires more often than the sinoatrial node, it can produce a sustained abnormal rhythm. Rhythms produced by an ectopic focus in the atria, or by the
Atrioventricular Node , are the least dangerous dysrhythmias; but they can still produce a decrease in the heart's pumping efficiency, because the signal reaches the various parts of the heart muscle with slightly different timing than usual and causes a poorly coordinated contraction.
Conditions that increase automaticity include
Sympathetic Nervous System stimulation and
Hypoxia . The resulting heart rhythm depends on where the first signal begins: if it is the sinoatrial node, the rhythm remains normal but rapid; if it is an ectopic focus, many types of dysrhythmia can result.
Reentrant dysrhythmias occur when an electrical impulse travels in a circle within the heart, rather than moving outward and then stopping. Every cardiac cell is able to transmit impulses in every direction, but will only do so once within a short period of time. Normally the impulse spreads through the heart quickly enough that each cell will only respond once, but if conduction is abnormally slow in some areas, part of the impulse will arrive late and will be treated as a new impulse, which can then spread backward. Depending on the timing, this can produce a sustained abnormal rhythm, such as
Atrial Flutter , a self-limiting burst of
Supraventricular Tachycardia , or the dangerous
Ventricular Tachycardia .
By analogy, imagine a room full of people all given these instructions: "If you see anyone starting to stand up, then stand up for three seconds and sit back down." If the people are quick enough to respond, the first person to stand will trigger a single wave which will then die out; but if there are stragglers on one side of the room, people who have already sat down will see them and start a second wave, and so on.
Cardiac dysrhythmias are often first detected by simple but nonspecific means: auscultation of the heartbeat with a
Stethoscope , or feeling for peripheral
Pulse s. These cannot usually diagnose specific dysrhythmias, but can give a general indication of the heart rate and whether it is regular or irregular. Not all the electrical impulses of the heart produce audible or palpable beats; in many cardiac arrhythmias, the premature or abnormal beats do not produce an effective pumping action and are experienced as "skipped" beats.
The simplest ''specific'' diagnostic test for assessment of heart rhythm is the
Electrocardiogram (abbreviated or '''EKG'''). A
Holter Monitor is an ECG recorded over a 24-hour period, to detect dysrhythmias that may happen briefly and unpredictably throughout the day.
, or '''sudden arrhythmia death syndrome''', is a term used to describe sudden
Death due to
Cardiac Arrest brought on by an arrhythmia. The most common cause of sudden death in the US is coronary artery disease. Approximately 300,000 people die suddenly of this cause every year in the US. SADS can also occur from other causes. Tragically there are many inherited conditions and heart diseases that can affect young people that can cause sudden death. Many of these victims have no symptoms before dying suddenly.
The most common causes of SADS in young people are
Long QT Syndrome ,
Brugada Syndrome , and
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.
There are many classes of antiarrhythmic medications and many individual drugs within these classes. See the article on .
Dysrhythmias may also be treated electrically.
Cardioversion is the application of electrical current across the chest wall to the heart and it is used for treatment of supraventricular or pulsed ventricular tachycardia.
Defibrillation differs in that it is used for ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia, and more electricity is delivered with defibrillation than with cardioversion. In cardioversion, the recipient is either sedated or lightly
Anesthetized for the procedure. In defibrillation, the recipient has lost consciousness so there is no need for sedation.
Electrical treatment of dysrhythmia includes
Cardiac Pacing . Temporay pacing may be done for very slow heartbeats, or
Bradycardia , from
Drug Overdose or
Myocardial Infarction . A
Pacemaker may be placed in situations where the bradycardia is not expected to recover.
Atrial fibrillation can also be treated through a procedure, e.g. pulmonary vein isolation. This is performed by a cardiologist who specializes in electrophysiology and is done
Percutaneously with
Catheters . Alternatively, a maze procedure can be performed through
Cardiothoracic Surgery .
