Monday, October 13, 2014

Important Reason To Learn To Interpret Dysrhythmias

By Estelle Larsen


An essential part of the body of a human is the heart. Blood is being pumped by this organ that is needed by humans to live. When a person puts a hand over the part of his body where it is situated, he may feel that there is a rhythm when it beats, since blood is being pumped by it. However, there are instances where humans will experience abnormal contractions and would have faster or slower heartbeats.

Emotions such as excitement, fear, and nervousness would cause the heart to beat faster. On the other hand, electrolyte imbalance and metabolic issues could cause it to beat slower. These movements, called dysrhythmias, may be life threatening to the individuals experiencing them. For this matter, it is important for people to learn to interpret dysrhythmias.

Before anything else, persons may be confused on what dysrhythmia is. It is a condition where heartbeats are irregular, either faster or slower than what is considered normal for humans. The faster rates are called tachycardia. The slower ones are called bradycardia. Some of them are usually felt combined with emotions yet, some of them would certainly be life threatening.

These conditions occur to humans because of several reasons. There are two classifications for this, external forces or internal ones. Being stressed emotionally, smoking, feeling exhausted, consuming alcohol and stimulants such as caffeine and cocaine are some of the external factors. Congenital heart diseases, organ defects already present at birth, thyroid issues, and inflammatory diseases are the most common internal factors.

If the activities inside the human body are being checked, there are several cases when these conditions will occur. Sometimes, it will happen if a part of the heart, especially its natural pacemaker, is defective. It can also happen if the pathway to the ventricles and nodes is interrupted or something is blocking the way.

The movements are classified further into various types. One type can be differentiated from the other through checking on the number of heartbeats per minute. Apart from the common ones like bradycardia and tachycardia, they could be referring to sick sinus syndrome, premature ventricular contractions, atrial flutter, ventricular fibrillation, atrial fibrillation, and ventricular tachycardia.

The conditions can be determined by people through the presence of various symptoms. Shortness of breath, fainting, palpitations, lightheadedness, dizziness, and fatigue could be included in the symptoms. However, there are instances where symptoms are not present. For this, gadgets will have to be used by professionals, like the ECG monitors, for the heartbeats to be tracked in one whole day. This way, irregular contractions can be checked.

Treatments are actually available for patients who are experiencing these states. Professionals can give medications to the patients. They may also administer small amounts of electric shocks in extreme cases, such as defibrillators. Pacemakers are also available and these devices will be implanted inside the bodies of the individuals experiencing certain conditions.

With these things in mind, the reason why it is important to know these states is because it can help save lives. Death would be the ultimate result and worst case scenario for people who are experiencing the symptoms provided. Individuals would not certainly want to be left all of a sudden by those persons they love.




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