Hormonal alterations, lack of blood supply to the heart, viral infections. There are many causes of arrhythmia, a disorder that reduces the heart’s pumping capacity and that must be watched.
The heart is a muscle with four chambers: two atria and two ventricles. The blood from the veins reaches the right atrium, from there it passes to the right ventricle, which drives it to the lung to oxygenate it, and is collected in the left atrium, from there it passes to the left ventricle, which pumps blood to all the organs of the body human.
For the heart to contract efficiently, there is an electrical network capable of activating all muscle fibers in due course, thus maintaining a constant heart rate between 60 and 100 beats per minute that we can feel in the chest and neck wrist pulse. The heartbeat has two phases: diastole, which is when the heart relaxes to fill with blood, and systole, when once filled with blood, it contracts to pump it through the aorta artery.
What are cardiac arrhythmias?
The arrhythmias are alterations in the heart grid’s functioning of modifying the heart rate and impact the pumping function of this body, decreasing its effectiveness. They can be discovered accidentally by a routine electrocardiogram or be the cause of sudden death.
Arrhythmias are divided according to whether they cause a slower heart rate ( bradyarrhythmias ) or faster ( tachyarrhythmias ). They also differ, depending on where they originate, into ventricular arrhythmias or supraventricular arrhythmias (in the atria).
The most severe type of arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation (3%), which occurs when individual muscle fibers contract very rapidly and in an uncoordinated fashion. It is a widespread reason for medical consultation in the elderly and can cause an arterial embolism or an ischemic stroke. In some cases, such as ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation, the risk of death is immediate and therefore requires specialized urgent care.
The most common types of arrhythmias are:
Extrasystoles: can occur in any heart, healthy or diseased. Occasionally, a cardiac impulse is produced outside the electrical network, and it produces vibrations that disappear after a short time. They are only a cause for study in patients who have already suffered from heart disease. They can also be more easily triggered by tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, tea, chocolate, and anti-cold medications.
Ventricular tachycardia: the electrical impulses of the heart do not originate in the electrical network in an orderly manner but arise at any point in the walls of the ventricles and are transmitted to the rest of the heart by alternative routes, which are slower, so the heartbeat is not homogeneous, it speeds up and pumps less efficiently. It is a life-threatening arrhythmia.
Ventricular fibrillation: it is the most severe arrhythmia and precedes sudden death. Various electrical impulses appear at different points on the ventricles’ walls, thereby stimulating the heart to contract chaotically. This means that the homogeneous contraction does not occur, and the blood pumping function is canceled; therefore, an emergency requires administering an electric shock that restores the normal rhythm.
