What causes Arrhythmia?

Arrhythmia Causes:

Those in good health would barely ever ail from long-lasting arrhythmia only if the person is exposed to an external triggering factor like drug misuse or an electric shock. Due to an underlying problem, the electrical impulses might not be able to suitably pass through to the heart, thus raising the chances of arrhythmia.

• Binge drinking.
• Being diabetic.
• Drug misuse.
• Over-intake of coffee.
• Heart ailment.
• Soaring blood pressure or hypertension.
• A hyperactive thyroid gland or hyperthyroidism.
• Mental strain.
• Heart scarring due to heart attack.
• Smoking.
• Certain dietetic supplements, herbal medications or other medicines.
• Reduced blood supply or a damage or death to the cells and tissues of the heart could modify the heart’s capacity for conducting electrical impulses leading to the development of arrhythmia.
• Variation in the heart structure could be due to:

Coronary arterial disease or CAD: could cause the constriction of the heart’s arteries, mostly leading to a heart attack that scars the heart tissue leading to interference in the correct movement of the electrical impulses that cause the heart beat. This leads to the heart beating either faster (ventricular tachycardia) or erratically (ventricular fibrillation).

Cardiomyopathy – a diseased myocardium – a heart muscle leads to the ventricular walls stretching, or the left ventride wall might narrow thus gravely affecting the heart’s blood-siphoning efficacy mostly leading to heart tissue damage.

Valvular heart disease – The narrowing or leakage of the heart valves leads to the stretching or thickening of the heart muscles that could raise the chances of developing arrhythmia.

Tachycardia affecting the atria leads to:

• Atrial fibrillation – This is a widely prevalent form of arrhythmia chiefly affecting the older age bracket causes erratically faster beating of the atrial chambers, the risk being higher due to hypertension or some other heart ailment. Rather than the normal production of a singly strong contraction, the chamber palpitates or quivers leading to the heat beats soaring to350 beats/minute and even touching 500-600 in some individuals. Long lasting atrial fibrillation could lead to stroke alongside some other grave complications.
• Atrial fluttering – The atrial flutter is ordered in nature while atrial fibrillation is transient. Atrial fluttering is a grave condition which classically leads to soaring heart beats reaching 250-350 beats/minute.
• Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) – SVT is caused due to regularly-paced, abnormal heart beats due to swift emission of electrical impulses that originate above the atrio-ventricular node. These spurts mostly happen when the electrical impulses from a heart beat begins to circle via the additional path, usually leading to raised heart beats of 160-200 beats/minute. SVT could be because of an underlying heart ailment. Youngsters with normally functioning hearts could have SVT or racy hearts – though it might be uncomfortable, but not of any serious consequence.
• Wolff-Parkinson-White or (WPW) syndrome – In this rather uncommon though potentially life-ominous syndrome, there is an additional electrical link within the heart that operates as a short route, leading to an unnaturally quicker heart beat (at times, erratic).

Tachycardia affecting the ventricles leads to:

• Ventricular tachycardia (VT) – irregular electrical impulses that originate in the ventricles leading to irregularly rapid heart beats. In general, the heart would bear the scarring due to a former heart attack that compels the electrical signal to take a trip around it. By and large, the ventricular contractions would race past two hundred times per minute.

Ventricular tachycardia is known to affect individuals with heart-associated ailments, like scarring or ventricle muscle marring due to arterial disease or a heart attack. There are two forms of VT, namely:

Unsustained VT – This continues for a period of nearly half a minute and is normally not of any grave consequence. Though, there is imminent likelihood of long-standing VT.

Sustained VT – This is longer-enduring form of VT and is deemed as a medical emergency.

• Ventricular Fibrillation: Anomalous heart rhythm comprising of very fast, unsynchronized quivering contractions of the ventricles. The ventricles fail to adequately impel blood and keep needlessly quivering. There is drastic drop in blood pressure leading to major organs like the brain being deprived of crucial blood supply. Many patients become unconscious rather fast and need urgent medical aid inclusive of CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Patients with are administered CPR till their heart can be jolted back into normal functioning employing a defibrillator have improved survival rates. Fatality is mostly the consequence if the patient is not promptly administered CPR in a matter of crucial few minutes. Ventricular fibrillation is normally related to some form of heart ailment and mostly elicited by a heart attack.

• Long QT syndrome – A disorderly heart rhythm that might at times lead to quick, unsynchronized heartbeats. The syndrome name is derived from the QT segment noted in the tracing derived from the electrocardiogram that endures little longer in the syndrome than usual. Fainting could happen when heartbeats hasten that might be a threat to life. In extreme situations, the heart rhythm might turn out to be so frenzied that it could lead to abrupt death. Few individuals genetically bear an anomalous gene that raises the chances of contracting Long QT syndrome. Several medicines are also known to lead to Long QT syndrome.

Bradycardia (Irregularly slow heart rhythms) – A sluggish heartbeat (less than sixty beats per minute) doesn’t essentially imply a reason for concern. A fit individual having a healthy heart might have a lower resting heart rate than could be lesser than sixty beats per minute, and still be hail and hearty. Bradycardia is an issue when there is a fault in the heart that leads to improper pumping of blood. Instances comprise of the following:

• Sickly sinus – When the sinus node that is the heart’s innate pacemaker, poses a problem due to improper functioning, the patient’s resting heart rate might plummet to unnaturally low levels (bradycardia). Sickly sinus might be caused due to scars occurring close to the sinus node that destabilizes the movement of the electrical impulses.
• Conduction block - A hindrance in the electrical pathways of the heart could happen in or close to the atrioventricular node situated on the path lying in-between the atria and the ventricles. The blockage might be noted along the other conduits to each ventricle. There could be slowdown or impediment in the transmission of the electrical impulses between the upper and lower parts of the heart that is dependent on the kind of blockage and its location. If there is complete blockage of the signal, few cells present in the atrioventricular node or ventricles could cause a steady though sluggish heartbeat. The person could feel missed heart beats or bradycardia – while at times some persons are asymptomatic.

Early or premature heart beats – An untimely heartbeat transpires in-between two normally occurring heartbeats. This takes place in the ventricles and occurs prior to the ventricles having any time to be inundated with blood subsequent to a normal heartbeat. The patient might experience a skip in heartbeats. In majority of the situations, an infrequent untimely beat is not bee fretted about. Though, it could activate a longer-standing arrhythmia that is particularly the situation when the person has a heart ailment.

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