Arrhythmia Information, arrythmia arythmia

Conditions & Diseases: Cardiovascular System

Arrhythmia

Introduction & Overview

Arrhythmia or dysrhythmia is an irregularity in heart rhythms leading to ineffective pumping of blood. Most arrhythmias are not life threatening and temporary. Arrhythmia could be due to strong emotions, exercise, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), electrolyte (i.e., Sodium or Potassium) imbalances in the blood, changes in the heart muscle, injury from heart attack and in the healing process after heart surgery (1).

Most serious arrhythmias contribute to about 500,000 deaths in the US annually. About 330,000 die annually in the US due to ventricular fibrillation, a type of arrhythmia. Other types of arrhythmias lead to stroke and formation of blood clots. It is important to note that about 4 million Americans suffer from recurrent arrhythmias and 850,000 are hospitalized annually for arrhythmia (1), (2) & (3).

Before discussing the types of arrhythmias, it is important to understand the heart’s complicated electrical system. Every heartbeat spreads an electrical signal from the top of the heart to its bottom causing the heart to contract and pump blood, this process repeats with each new heartbeat.

Every electrical signal of a heart begins in a group of cells called sinus node or sinoatrial (SA) node, which is located in the right atrium (i.e., upper right chamber of the heart). The two upper chambers of the heart are called atria (singular – atrium) and the two lower chambers are called ventricles. Each electrical signal travels through special pathways to the right and left atria causing them to contract and pump blood into the two ventricles. This electrical signal travels further down to another group of cells called the atrioventricular (AV) node located between the atria and the ventricles and slows down a bit permitting the ventricles to fill up with blood.

From the AV node the electrical signal progresses along a pathway called the bundle of His dividing into right and left bundle branches causing the ventricles to contract and pump blood to lungs and rest of the body. The ventricles then relax and the process of heartbeat starts all over again in the SA node (4).

Article by Kona Vishnu, MS
Medical Writer,
OmniMedicalSearch.com

Arrhythmia is sometimes misspelled: arrythmia arythmia and arrythmias.