Cardiac Arrhythmia: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment

Cardiac arrhythmia (or irregular heartbeat)is a disease of the cardiovascular system, which is characterized by any violations of the rhythm of the heart. The phenomenon is associated with a change in the regularity, frequency and sequence of heartbeats, palpitation can be either too frequent (development of tachycardia), or too slow (development of bradycardia). Some cases of arrhythmia can lead to cardiac arrest. Arrhythmia occurs at any age, in the upper and lower chambers of the heart, atria and ventricles, respectively. Some types of disease are barely noticeable, while others are more dramatic and result in a fatal outcome. Cardiac arrhythmia is considered one of the most common causes of death.

The mechanism of normal heart rhythm

To understand what an arrhythmia is, the reasons for itappearance, it is necessary to understand how in general there is a contraction of the myocardium. The mechanism of the normal rhythm of the heart is provided by a conducting cardiac system, which is a cluster of special highly specialized cells. These cells create electrical impulses and conduct them on special fibers that bring the heart muscle into operation. Despite the ability of each node of the system to generate impulses to the heart muscle, the main link here is the sinus node, which sets the necessary rhythm. It is located at the top of the right atrium. The impulses generated by the sinus node, like the sun's rays, spread from it in all directions. Some impulses "respond" to a contraction or arousal of the atria, while others help slow the contraction, so that the atria can send another portion of blood to the ventricles. This ensures the normal rhythm of our heart. Its violation can be caused by two problems:

- violation of the process of formation of impulses;

- violation of carrying out the generated pulses in the cardiac system.

With similar problems, the next node in the chaintakes on the "responsibility" for observing the work of the heart rhythm, but the frequency of contractions decreases. This is how the arrhythmia develops, the reasons for which will be considered a little later.

Types of arrhythmia

Doctors classify arrhythmias in aonly from the place where they occur (atria or ventricles), but also from the speed of the heartbeats. A fast heartbeat with a heart rate of more than 100 beats per minute is called tachycardia, and a slow pulse with a heart rate of less than 60 beats per minute is a bradycardia. The causes of cardiac arrhythmia directly depend on the type of disease.

Not always a tachycardia or a bradycardiamean heart disease. For example, during physical exertion fast heartbeat is considered the norm, since an increase in heart rate allows the body tissues to be provided with oxygen. During sleep or deep relaxation, the heart rate is usually slower.

If the tachycardia occurs in the atria, then the disorder is classified as follows:

- Atrial fibrillation is a rapidheartbeat caused by the chaos of electrical impulses in the atria. These signals lead to a rapid, inconsistent or weak contraction of the heart muscle. The causes of atrial fibrillation are the convulsive chaotic activity of the ventricles, which usually occurs against the background of other cardiovascular diseases. This phenomenon, like atrial fibrillation, can cause serious complications, such as stroke.

- Fluttering - similar to atrial fibrillation, electrical impulses are more organized and rhythmic than in fibrillation. Flutter also leads to a stroke.

Supraventricular tachycardia or supraventricular tachycardia, which includes many forms of arrhythmia occurring above the ventricles.

Tachycardia, which occur in the ventricles, are divided into the following subspecies:

- Ventricular tachycardia - is arapid regular cardiac contractions with abnormal electrical signals in the ventricles. This prevents the full filling of the ventricles and prevents efficient pumping of blood.

- Ventricular fibrillation is an arrhythmia, causeswhich consists in the inefficient pumping of blood due to the trembling of the ventricles. This is a rather serious problem that often ends in a fatal outcome if the heart can not restore the normal rhythm within a few minutes. Most people who experience ventricular fibrillation either have serious heart disease or have experienced serious trauma, such as lightning stroke.

Not always a low number of heartbeatsmeans that a person develops a bradycardia. If you are in good physical shape, then the heart can pump a sufficient volume of blood and for 60 beats per minute at rest. To reduce the heart rate can and some medications. However, if you have a slow heart rate and your heart does not pump enough blood, you may have one of several types of bradycardia.

- Sinus arrhythmia, the causes of which are due to the weakness of the sinus node.

- Blockage of excitation of electrical impulses between the atria and ventricles. In this case, the patient may experience missed strokes of the heart muscle.

- Premature heart contraction - occurs in the ventricles between two normal strokes.

Causes of cardiac arrhythmia

A healthy person is unlikely to ever suffersimilar problems. When there is a cardiac arrhythmia, its causes are caused by various negative factors for the body. It can be changes in the heart muscle, ischemic disease, electrolyte imbalance in the blood, trauma after a heart attack, healing processes after heart surgery and others. The pulse rate is also associated with anxiety, physical activity, medication.

It is important to understand that when a personarrhythmia, the causes and treatment of the disease for each age category of patients will be different. In children, for example, the disease occurs due to some factors, in adults - others. For a disease such as cardiac arrhythmia, the reasons for the general nature can be identified in the list:

- Disturbances that damage the heart and valves (endocarditis, myocarditis, rheumatism).

- Thyroid disorders.

- Hereditary factors.

- Dehydration or lack of potassium in the body or other electrolytes.

- Heart damage due to a heart attack.

- The healing process after heart surgery.

The risk of getting sick increases with smoking, stress, excessive intake of caffeine or alcohol, age, high blood pressure, kidney disease and other.

Cardiac arrhythmia in children

In children, the disease is classified inDepending on the location of the impulse transmission violation, i.e. in the ventricles or atria. If there is an arrhythmia in children, its causes should be looked very carefully to increase the child's chances of recovery. Atrial arrhythmias include the following:

- premature atrial contractions;

supraventricular tachycardia;

atrial fibrillation;

- Atrial flutter;

- gastric tachycardia;

- Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (a condition in which an electrical impulse can come to the ventricle too quickly).

Ventricular disorders of cardiac contractions in childhood include:

premature contraction of the ventricles (early or superfluous heartbeats);

- ventricular tachycardia (a life-threatening condition in which electrical signals enter their ventricles at a variable rate);

- Fibrillation of the ventricles (irregular, disorganized heart beats).

For children's bradycardia, the following disorders are typical:

- dysfunction of the sinus node (cardiac arrhythmia in children, the causes of which are due to a slow rhythm of heartbeats);

- cardiac blockade (delay or complete block of electrical impulse from the sinus node to the ventricles).

Symptoms of arrhythmia depend on the degree of maturitychild. Older children can tell themselves about dizziness or a fluttering sensation in the heart. Irritability, pallor of the skin, lack of appetite are noted in infants or toddlers. Some common symptoms of arrhythmia include:

- weakness, fatigue;

- violation of heart rate and pulse;

- dizziness, fainting or pre-stupor;

pallor of the skin;

- Pain in the chest;

- Shortness of breath, sweating;

- lack of appetite;

Irritability.

If in childhood develops a cardiacarrhythmia, the causes of the disease are caused by the following factors: infectious diseases, taking certain medications, fever, fever. For more serious reasons, congenital malformations are attributed. In most cases, arrhythmias in children are harmless. Nevertheless, when there is a change in the rhythm of the heart at rest, outside the games or physical exertion, parents should seek professional medical help in a medical institution.

Cardiac arrhythmia in adolescents

If there is an arrhythmia in adolescents, the reasons for itcan vary depending on the sinus rhythm. In adolescence, the organism is subject to multiple changes, which often causes various disorders. Such a phenomenon rarely becomes a pathology, the changes appear more at the physiological level and eventually disappear. However, this does not mean that arrhythmias in adolescents should not be given importance. At the initial stage of the illness, a teenager needs a regular examination of a doctor who will monitor the dynamics of arrhythmia. If the symptoms do not disappear within 1-2 years, then the teenager, of course, needs treatment.

The most common type of arrhythmia inadolescence is a bradycardia. The disease is fraught with the fact that the child's brain does not receive the necessary amount of oxygen, which leads to a deterioration of intellectual abilities, academic performance, slowing down of reactions, inability to fully engage in sports and other problems.

The causes of arrhythmia at this age are not always relatedwith diseases of the cardiovascular system. Endocrine disorders, stress, nervous overexertion, changes in the hormonal background in adolescents, pulmonary or bronchial diseases, colds accompanied by fever and so on can provoke the disease. In vegetative-vascular dystonia, the disease is most often phantom, so when treating such children, it is important to prescribe sedatives and counseling psychologists.

Cardiac Arrhythmia in Women

Women, as a group, are interestinga set of problems for a cardiologist who specializes in heart rhythm disturbances. There are monthly changes in certain arrhythmias, in which palpitation is a source of discomfort and anxiety for female patients, and there are certain risks when a woman is diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia. The causes, treatment, and symptoms of the disease depend on many different factors to consider.

Women have a higher prevalencesyndrome of weakness of the sinus node, sinus tachycardia, atrioventricular nodular tachycardia and other types of disease. The causes of arrhythmia in women are associated with a violation of the heart rhythm:

- ventricular tachycardia (originating from the lower chambers of the heart);

- supraventricular tachycardia (occurs in the upper chambers of the heart);

- premature atrial contractions (occur in the upper and lower chambers of the heart).

It is important to remember that a disturbed heartbeatis a symptom of the disease, not a diagnosis. Sometimes, when there is an arrhythmia, the causes of its occurrence can be associated with such factors as stress, nervous overexcitation, emotional frustration. Nevertheless, in these cases, a thorough diagnosis of the disease is necessary in order to rule out the possibility of more serious causes.

Arrhythmia in pregnancy usually occurs because ofchanges in the hormonal background of a woman. An increase in the level of estrogen and human chorionic gonadotropin affects the expression of cardiac ion channels, hemodynamic changes are characterized by an increase in the volume of circulating blood and double the cardiac output. In addition, pregnancy increases sympathetic tone. All these changes in the female body contribute to the development of arrhythmia.

Cardiac arrhythmia in men

In men, heart diseases occur in 2 timesmore often than women. The most common forms of the disease are atrioventricular block, carotid sinus syndrome, atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, recurrent ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation and sudden death, and Brugada syndrome. The causes of arrhythmia in men are often associated with overweight, alcohol abuse, smoking, lack of physical activity, malnutrition, stress, and some medications.

Men with heart disease are particularlythe development of arrhythmia, since irregularities in the functioning of the heart muscle can cause a cardiac arrest or a delay in the electrical signal from the sinus node to the ventricles. If there is an arrhythmia after eating, the causes of this condition are related to the pressure of the stomach on the diaphragm. This causes compression of the sternum, pressure on the heart. The causes of arrhythmia in men are also associated with high blood pressure and hyperactive thyroid gland, which also increase the risk.

Symptoms of the disease in adults

With a disease such as cardiac arrhythmia,symptoms, the causes of the disease are closely interrelated. So, for example, when the heart beats faster than usual, the symptoms of the illness include chest discomfort, palpitations, dizziness, headache, hypertension. With bradycardia, usually there is fatigue, dizziness, fainting or pre-stupor states, lowering blood pressure.

The symptoms of arrhythmia in adults aregeneral weakness, increased feeling of fatigue, violation of heart rate and pulse. With slow strokes of the heart, the brain does not receive the right amount of oxygen, so patients notice frequent dizziness, fainting or premarrow, they have shortness of breath and sweating. Skin covers turn pale, become sweaty. When tachycardia is frequent pain in the chest, irritability increases,

If the flutter in the chest area is randomcharacter, they do not carry any danger. But if the pain in the heart becomes more and more, and a person constantly has a feeling of weakness, the pulse becomes irregular, it's time to see a doctor.

Arrhythmia Treatment

Most forms of heart disease are consideredharmless and do not need treatment. If a person has an arrhythmia of the heart, the causes, treatment of the disease usually depend on each other, because the doctors choose the method of therapy, based on the factors that triggered the disease. Treatment of the disease is usually aimed at preventing blood clots in the bloodstream in order to prevent the risk of stroke, restore normal heart rate, control heart rate in the normal range, reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

If the bradycardia does not manifestlyexpressed reasons, doctors usually resort to the use of pacemakers. The pacemaker is a small device that is installed near the clavicle. One or more electrodes with the tips emanating from the device send electrical impulses through the blood vessels to the heart and thus stimulate regular cardiac contraction in humans.

For many types of tachycardia, a patient may beprescribed treatment that allows you to control the heart rate or restore a normal heart rate. Such therapy allows to minimize all possible complications. At atrial fibrillation, the doctor prescribes medications that dilute the blood, which prevent the formation of blood clots in the bloodstream. With atrial fibrillation, the patient is prescribed medications with the use of cardioversion, which allows to restore the normal sinus rhythm.

In some cases, the patient may berecommended surgical treatment of arrhythmia. With a serious lesion of the coronary artery, the patient is offered a coronary bypass surgery. This procedure improves the flow of blood to the heart. Radiofrequency ablation is performed in the case of an increased number of heartbeats with insufficient pulse. During surgery, the doctor makes punctures in the scar tissue, which can no longer conduct electrical impulses.

Prevention

In order to prevent heart disease, and inparticular arrhythmia, should lead a healthy lifestyle, adhere to recommendations for proper nutrition, abandon bad habits, avoid stressful situations, play sports.