Cardiac arrhythmia is any change in the rhythm of the heart barks that can be done faster, slower or simply out of rhythm. The frequency of heartbeats in one minute that is considered normal for a resting individual is between 60 and 100 lat/min.
Cardiac arrhythmias can be mild or malignant, while benign ones are the most common. Benign arrhythmias are those that do not alter heart function and performance and do not result in a high risk of death, and could be controlled with medication and physical activity. They have malignant arrhythmias that impede exercise and cause disease.
Causes of cardiac arrhythmia may include
Anemia is a reduction in the number of red blood cells or hemoglobin in the blood due to normal values, causing symptoms such as excessive fatigue, drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, memory loss and lack of appetite. Learn more about symptoms of anemia.
Stress and anxiety can cause various health problems due to changes in cortisol production, causing problems such as changes in heart rate, sweating, siens, dry mouth. Learn more about symptoms of stress and anxiety
In hypothyroidism, thyroid activity decreases because it does not produce enough hormones to meet the body’s needs, causing several symptoms. Learn more about hypothyroidism.
Coronary heart disease involves obstruction of blood vessels that supply the heart, due to the buildup of fat plaques inside the arteries, making it difficult for blood to pass through the heart.
These diseases occur when the heart has difficulty pumping blood throughout the body, causing symptoms such as fatigue, night swelling of the legs at the end of the day.
Valvular heart diseases are diseases that affect the heart valves, such as the tricuspid, mitral, pulmonary and aortic valves, making it difficult to function and causing symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, pain in swelling.
Chagas disease is caused by the bite of a mosquito infected with an inflamed parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which could cause heart problems such as enlarged heart ventricles and heart failure.
Congenital heart disease is characterized by a change in the structure of the heart that forms before birth.
In addition to these diseases, there are other factors that can cause arrhythmias such as side effects of certain medications, drug use, intense physical activity, drop in heart cells, changes in sodium, potassium and calcium levels in the body, or complications after the heart. Surgery.
Symptoms of cardiac arrhythmia may include
In some cases, symptoms are not present and your doctor only discovers the patient’s pulse by performing cardiac auscultation, indicating an electrocardiogram to confirm the presence of arrhythmia.
Diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmia could be achieved through tests such as:
The cardiologist should request and evaluate these tests, however, it is not necessary to perform them all to obtain the diagnosis.
Treatment for cardiac arrhythmia will depend on the type of arrhythmia, which could be achieved with medication use, pacemaker installation, lifestyle changes, or, in some cases, cardiac ablation surgery.
The installation of a pacemaker is indicated for people with a certain type of low-frequency arrhythmias, it is necessary to follow treatment correctly and throughout life, since certain types of cardiac arrhythmias can cause the disease.
Examples of medicines used to treat arrhythmia include propafenone, sotalol, dofetilide, amiodarone and ibutilide.
Cardiac arrhythmias can be cured or controlled when diagnosed early and can be reversed by treating the cause, using specific medications or implanting pacemakers or automatic defibrillators.