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Tachycardia, or the problem of excessive heart rate

16-11-2014,
m.Sc. Michał Mańka

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Tachycardia, or the problem of excessive heart rate

Panthermedia

Chest pain in men, heart attack

Tachycardia is an acceleration of the heart rate above 100 beats per minute.

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A faster-than-normal heart rate comes from:

  • excitation impulses of the heart contractions produced in the physiological pacemaker (sinus node)
    • sinus tachycardia (normal response during exertion, emotion, fever, anxiety, anaemia, dehydration, hypotension, inflammation, pulmonary embolism, heart failure, pheochromocytoma, taking CNS stimulating drugs)
  • cardiac excitation impulses generated from other (than the sinus node) sites in the heart - tachyarrhythmias
    • supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (rhythm disturbances involving the atria of the heart, originating from ectopic foci of pathological atrial muscle cells)
      • atrial fibrillation,
      • atrial flutter
      • recurrent nodal tachycardia,
    • ventricular tachyarrhythmias (rapid and chaotic contractions do not allow the ventricles to fill properly with blood between contractions, resulting in reduced cardiac output, leading to complete cardiac arrest) - arrhythmias involving the ventricles, originating from ectopic foci of pathological ventricular muscle cells
      • ventricular tachycardia,
        • ventricular fibrillation.