Arrhythmias - Symptoms, Diagnosis & Treatment of

Arrhythmias

Arrhythmia is a disorder of the heart pulse or heart rhythm such as beating too fast (tachycardia) or
beating too slow (bradycardia) or irregular heartbeat. Premature or extra beats are the most
common type of arrhythmia. This, usually, feels like a fluttering in the chest or a feeling of a
skipped heartbeat. The Heart has an electrical system that instructs it when to beat and pump
blood to the body. If there is a trouble with this system the person may experience heart rhythm
disorders. The disease may present serious symptoms like loss of breath, exhaustion, and feeling
of skipping beats and so on. It is important to recognise the symptoms in time and approach
treatment.

Arrhythmias are caused due to problems with the heart's electrical conduction system, such as
abnormal or extra signals might occur or the electrical signals can be blocked or slowed down or
can even travel in new or different pathways through the heart. Such problems need to be
diagnosed in time. Some heart rhythm disorder causes are:

Heart failure & heart attack

Congenital heart defects
High blood pressure
Infections that damage the heart muscle or the sac around the heart
Diabetes
Acute sleep disorders
An overactive or underactive thyroid gland
Arrhythmias may also develop due to the use of alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes or stimulants such as
amphetamines, beta-blockers etc. It is also possible for medication prescribed to treat one type of
Arrhythmia to cause another type of Arrhythmia. Such effects are not asymptomatic and hence, will
always present some or the other prominent symptoms related to arrhythmias.
The most common type of heart Arrhythmia is Atrial fibrillation which arises when the normal
beating in the upper chambers of the heart is irregular, and blood doesnt flow properly the way it
should from the atria (upper chambers) to the lower chambers of the heart.

Fast heart patterns such as supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), inappropriate sinus tachycardia,
atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation (AF), ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) are
called tachycardias. Whereas, slow heart patterns such as AV heart block, bundle branch block
and tachybrady syndrome are called bradycardias.

Symptoms of heart rhythm disorder may range from barely perceptible to cardiovascular collapse
and even, death. Random moments of arrhythmias are usually harmless but, when arrhythmias
last for a long time serious symptoms might be developed such as:

fatigue
dizziness
lightheadedness
fainting
rapid heartbeat or pounding
anxiety
shortness of breath
 sweating
chest pain
collapse and cardiac arrest (in extreme cases)

Heart rhythm disorders may be due:

Alcohol consumption
Smoking
Drug use
Stress
Age
Arrhythmia diagnosis and treatment is very necessary and needs to be attended with high priority.
Some of the common treatments are:
Electrical "shock" therapy (defibrillation or cardioversion)
Implanting a short-term heart pacemaker
Medications are given through a vein (intravenous) or by mouth
Medications called anti-arrhythmic drugs may be used to prevent an arrhythmia from happening
again
Cardiac ablation is used to destroy areas in your heart that causes heart rhythm problems
An implantable cardiac defibrillator is placed for patients who are at high risk of sudden cardiac
death
A pacemaker might be placed to send a signal to the heart to make the heart beat at the correct
pace.

Narayana Health is one of the best hospitals in India for diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm
disorders (Arrhythmias) with some of the most skilled doctors in the country. Narayana health
specialises in Cardiology, with 23 hospitals, 7 heart centres and a network of primary health
centres across India and also 1 hospital in the Cayman Islands. Narayana health provides high-
quality healthcare services for Arrhythmia treatment in India with a team of the best, dedicated and
experienced physicians. This superspeciality hospital in India provides advanced care in over 30
specialities including cardiology and cardiac surgery, cancer care, neurology and neurosurgery,
orthopaedics, nephrology and urology and gastroenterology.

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