WHAT ARE HEART ARRHYTHMIAS?

The heart pumps about 70 times in a minute. This beating occurs at a regular interval. An irregularity in the rhythm is called Arrhythmia. The heart may beat irregularly, beat too fast or beat too slowly.

Nearly everyone has felt their heart skip a beat, race or flutter inside their chest. Occasional heart palpitations are common and harmless, even though they’re considered arrhythmias. They may just occur, or they may be produced by something that stimulates your heart, such as stress, tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, appetite suppressants or cold and cough medicines that contain caffeine or other stimulants. If you have an otherwise normal heart, occasional heart palpitations are rarely cause for alarm, and most don’t require medical treatment. If they’re bothersome, limiting or avoiding what prompted them may eliminate the problem.

However many, mainly elderly experience recurrent or symptom-producing heart arrhythmias that may require treatment. With these arrhythmias heart may regularly beat too fast (tachycardia) or too slowly (bradycardia) because of a problem with the heart’s electrical system.

Recurrent heart arrhythmias may cause frequent heart palpitations, chest pain and lighheadedness. Some produce no symptoms but are detected during a physical or heart checkup.

Arrhythmias are usually a byproduct of damage to the heart from disease or age. People with otherwise healthy hearts can develop an arrhythmia, but it is rare.

Arrhythmias can be serious. A few may even be life-threatening because a heart that is not beating normally may not be able to pump blood efficiently.

Fortunately, treatments exists to correct arrhythmias. Treatments include medications, surgical procedures and medical devices that correct or eliminate the abnormal rhythm.

TYPES OF ARRHYTHMIAS

Arrhythmias are categorized by their speed. Bradycardia refers to a slow heart rate. Tachycardia refers to a fast heart rate. Fibrillation refers to fast, uncoordinated beats — a quivering heart.

Arrhythmias are also categorized by where the electrical problem originates in the heart . Arrhythmias that start in your heart’s atria are called atrial or supraventricular arrhythmias. Arrhythmias that stem from your heart’s ventricles are called ventricular arrhythmias and tend to be more serious.

Some common arrhythmias include:

Supraventricular tachycardia. This is a burst of rapid heartbeats that originates in your heart’s upper chambers. The bursts usually begin and end suddenly. Episodes can last seconds to days.

Atrial flutter. As the name implies, the heart’s upper chambers flutter, beating rapidly. Atrial flutter is often associated with damage to the heart caused by a faulty heart valve.

Atrial fibrillation. This is a very common arrhythmia, affecting mainly older people. In atrial fibrillation, the heart’s upper chambers beat very fast (300 to 600 beats a minute) and chaotically. The ventricles also speed up, resulting in an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm.

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. This arrhythmia, named after the physicians who first described it, is caused by an extra electrical pathway that develops between the heart’s upper and lower chambers. This extra pathway allows too many electrical impulses to reach the ventricles, speeding up the heart rate.

Ventricular tachycardia. In this type of arrhythmia, faulty electrical signals that arise from your heart’s lower chambers cause your ventricles to beat too fast. Ventricular tachycardia is almost always associated with heart disease or recent heart attack and can deteriorate to the most serious form of fast heartbeat — ventricular fibrillation.

Ventricular Fibrillation. This arrhythmia is considered a medical emergency. Chaotic electrical signals through your heart’s lower chambers cause your heart to suddenly quiver uselessly and cease pumping. Most people lose consciousness within seconds and require some type of immediate emergency medical assistance, such as CPR. Unless the heart is shocked back into a normal rhythm by a device called a defibrillator, ventricular fibrillation results in sudden death.

Sick sinus syndrome. If your heart’s sinus node isn’t firing right, your heart rate slows down or keeps changing its pace (fast/slow). Sick sinus syndrome , which is common in older people , is considered a type of bradycardia. This arrhythmia sometimes accompanies atrial fibrillation.

Heart Block. This arrhythmia occurs when the electrical pathways that run between your heart’s upper and lower chambers and through your heart’s lower chambers become blocked, slowing the transmission of electrical impulses through the heart. The result is a very slow heart rate (bradycardia).

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This article is written by Dr. Bimal Chhajer (Heart Specialist India)