Cardiac Arrhythmia Essay

In December of 1992, my paternal grandfather suffered a heart attack. He had been hauling several 50 lb. sacks of corn up into the deer feeder on his property by himself. He got into his truck, turned the ignition, put it into drive and before he could take his foot off the brake, he was dead. He was 68 years old. I was thirteen and that seemed so old. I remember that prior to the event there were many conversations within my family about the condition of my grandfather’s heart and cardiovascular system and how he needed to make lifestyle changes. I remember him taking nitroglycerine pills. I remember him coming to Dallas to go to an appointment so that they could perform tests with names like “stress EKG.” I

The heart is what keeps the human body running. From the very first time someone presses their head up against their mothers chest or feels their own heart beat, they know that the pulse they feel means something important. It’s the rhythm that lets us keep on living. It’s strange to think that before I read this book, I barely knew anything about this absolutely vital organ in my body. Now, I probably know more history about the human heart than I ever thought I’d know. This book went totally in depth about the history of the human heart, and how modern medicine knows what it knows about this vital organ. It weaves history and information about the heart together in a way that keeps you interested until the last page, which is something I

The EKG Technician is the person responsible for performing diagnostic tests to access the heart rhythm and rate in patients. EKG technician is an integral part of the management of patients with heart disease. The EKG Technician may also clean equipment, maintain and process data reports. The course will prepare students with the theory, academics and clinical education necessary to function as an entry level EKG technician. This course may be taken as a module toward completion of the PCT program, or it may be taken independently as an individual skills course. The course structure will consist of introduction to EKG, applied EKG and clinical EKG.

EKG is an electrocardiogram, a machine used to check on problems with your electrical activity with your heart. An electrocardiogram machine translates the heart’s electrical pattern into lines that specific professionals can read it. The first EKG was made by Willem Einthoven, a Dutch Java island (now called Indonesia) born citizen. Willem was born the 21st day of May 1860. His father, Jacob Einthoven, was born and educated in Groningen (Netherlands). His father was also

Tachycardia: Tachycardia typically refers to a heart rate that exceeds the normal range for a resting heart rate. When the heart beats rapidly, the heart pumps less efficiently and provides less blood flow to the body and the heart. The rapid heartbeat increases the workload and oxygen demand of the heart. Problems will occur with the heart as tachycardia persists over time. The heart is maintaining less oxygen, which will lead to an MI due to death of the myocardial cells. Patient will start to have angina because of this. Tachycardia is noted in many diseases and disorder like: fever endocarditis, anemia, HTN, pericarditis, abnormal heart impulses, anxiety, older age, sleep apnea, COPD, electrolyte imbalances, and many more.

physical release of all the energy built up in the body does not actually take

Being knowledgeable about the heart is very important, especially if one is an athlete. This experiment is significant, because it can tell us how important it is for one to keep their heart healthy. It will also tell us how playing a sport can benefit one’s health and the well being of their heart. Our hypothesis says, if the athleticism of a person increases, then the heart rate recovery time will decrease when heart rate recovery in a function of athleticism. The purpose of this project is to see which type of athlete, or non-athlete has the best heart function.

Cardiac dysrhythmias come in different degrees of severity. There are heart conditions that you are able to live with and manage on a daily basis and those that require immediate attention. Atrial Fibrillation is one of the more frequently seen types of dysrhythmias (NIH, 2011). The best way to diagnosis a heart condition is by reading a cardiac strip (Ignatavicius &Workman, 2013). Cardiac strips play an chief part in the nursing world allowing the nurse and other trained medical professionals to interpret what the heart is doing. In a normal strip, one can clearly identify a P wave before every QRS complex, which is then followed by a T wave; in Atrial Fibrillation, the Sinoatrial node fires irregularly causing there to be no clear P

Mutations have been identified, in recent genetic studies, in several genes that encode for the proteins that regulate or modulate these ion channels. These mutations can lead to Long QT syndrome by altering cardiac repolarization and increasing the risk for ventricular arrhythmias (4). Mutations shown to cause long QT syndrome have been identified in 12 genes. These explain roughly 75% of long QT syndrome cases and the remainder is thought to be caused by mutations in genes that have not yet been identified as a cause of long QT syndrome (4). Most of the information known about mutations that cause long QT syndrome links to the first five long QT syndrome genes identified which are listed here with commonly used gene aliases: KCNQ1 (KVLQT1); KCNH2 (HERG); SCN5A (hH1 and NaV1.5); KCNE1 (minK); and KCNE2 (MiRP1). Observed mutations in these genes include missense (72 percent), frameshift (10 percent), splice-site (7 percent), and nonsense mutations (6 percent), and in-frame deletions (5 percent) (4). An increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias results from the prolongation of the action potential, and therefore the QT interval, which is caused by rapid delayed potassium rectifier channel current (IKr), reduced slow delayed potassium rectifier channel current (IKs), or

Risk for having CAD or established CAD, previous MI or heart failure with decreased ejection fraction and ventricular arrhythmias are the known risk factors for SCD[17, 136]. The estimated incidence rate of SCD in infants, children, adolescents, and young adults is about 1.3 to 8.5 per 100,000 patient/years [137] but it still costs to thousands life per year. Sudden infant death syndrome accounting for approximately 10% of the crib death is believed to be due to cardiac arrhythmia or long QT syndrome [138]. A study suggest that out of 158 deaths of American athletes, 30% were due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 13% due to abnormal blood circulation, 10% due to increased cardiac mass due to cardiomyopathy [139]. Another study suggest 20% death due to CAD and 10% deaths due to right ventricular cardiomyopathy/ dysplasia in young population [140]. Patients suffering from SCD with normal heart or without any cardiac disease history, on autopsy show structural abnormalities. Sudden unexplained deaths are also a major concern in epidemiology of SCD and careful post-mortem and histological examination can play a vital role [17]. In a study with 270 autopsies 55 were found to have structural heart disease and a specific cause for death were found in 180 cases with 65% having CAD, 14% with congenital anomalies and 11% with myocarditis. Left

According to Wung et al. (2013), there are two types of inheritable cardiac disease; channelopathies such as Brugada, long QT syndrome and short QT syndrome, and cardiomyopathies such as arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. While channelopathies may be identified by characteristic ECG irregularities, some of these disorders may not manifest typical symptoms in genetic carriers (Wung et al., 2013). Genetic testing for those with vague symptoms such as syncope, arrhythmias of the ventricles, or those who have a history of SCD in the family may identify an underlying condition (Wung et al., 2013). If a genetic condition is identified in the affected person, the specific mutations can be identified with genetic testing and be used to identify at-risk family members who may then undergo cardiac monitoring, treatment and counseling

Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a heart rhythm condition that can potentially cause fast, chaotic heartbeats. These rapid heartbeats might trigger a sudden fainting spell or seizure. In some cases, the heart can beat erratically for so long that it causes sudden death. The condition is treatable however the patient may need to take precautions in order to avoid an irregular heart beat the form of medication. Sometimes surgery or implantable devices have to be involved as part of a treatment plan. The patient will have to avoid medications known to cause the condition or provoke symptoms and some physical activities will have to be neglected.

An dysrhythmia of the heart is an irregular heartbeat rhythm. Ventricular tachycardia is an dysrhythmia in which the lower chambers of the heart, the ventricles, beat unusually fast.

Cardiac catheterization is often referred to as coronary angiography or a coronary angiogram. It is a radiographic procedure that is used to look at and visualize the heart and the coronary arteries. During a cardiac catheterization it is possible for the cardiologist performing the procedure to see how effectively blood is flowing through the coronary arteries. In addition, this procedure allows the cardiologists to see how blood is moving through the chambers of the heart and how effective the heart valves are functioning. A cardiac catheterization can also allow for the visualization of the movement of the walls of the heart to see if the pumping action of the heart is normal.

Regular electrical impulses are sent within the conduction system of the heart prompting contraction (Marieb, 2015). These electrical signals can be identified and documented by the use of an electrocardiography (ECG) machine. In a familiar ECG recording, three waves will occur; The P wave, QRS complex and