Ventricular tachycardia is a type of arrhythmia that has a high heart rate, with more than 120 beats per minute, occurs in the lower heart and can interfere with the ability to pump blood to the body, symptoms include a feeling of shortness of breath, feeling of chest oppression and the person may even faint.
This change can occur in people who appear healthy without symptoms and is generally benign, although it can also be caused by serious illnesses, which can even lead to death.
Ventricular tachycardia can be classified as follows
Your cardiologist may know the characteristics after performing the electrocardiogram.
Symptoms of ventricular tachycardia may include:
Sometimes ventricular tachycardia causes few symptoms, even at frequencies of up to 200 beats per minute, but remains extremely dangerous.Diagnosis is made by your cardiologist based on an electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, cardiac MRI, or cardiac catheterization..
The goal of treatment is to get your heart rate back to normal, which can be achieved with a defibrillator in the hospital, in addition, after controlling your heart rate, it is important to avoid future episodes, so treatment can be done with:
Cardioversion: consists of an “electric shock” to the patient’s chest with the use of a defibrillator in the hospital.The patient receives a sleeping pill during the procedure and therefore does not feel any pain, which is a fast and safe procedure.
Medication use: Indicated for people who do not have symptoms but are not as effective as cardioversion, and the likelihood of side effects is higher.
DAI implantation: DAI is an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, similar to a pacemaker, that is indicated for people who are likely to have new episodes of ventricular tachycardia.
Removing small abnormal ventricular areas: through a catheter inserted into your heart or open-heart surgery.
Complications are related to heart failure, fainting and sudden death.
Some conditions that can cause ventricular tachycardia include heart disease, side effects of certain medications, sarcoidosis, and illicit drug use, but there are some cases where the cause cannot be discovered.