Chapter 12

Cardiac Arrhythmia

A. Bharath Kumar and M.S. Umashankar

Abstract

The heart conduction and contraction provide the driving force for the pumping of blood to the heart. The abnormalities in the conduction properties of the heart can lead to arrhythmias. The action potential helps the opening and closing of the ion channels that cause conduction of the cardiac muscles. Atrial fibrillation is most commonly occurs in the cardiac arrhythmia. The arrhythmia prevalence has an incidence of 1%, it is an aging dependent factor and the incidence was raise to ≥2.5- fold by the year 2050. Elderly patients the progression of the atrial flutter is related to cardiac disorders. The clinical symptoms of atrial flutter include anxiety, palpitations, dizziness, headache, irregular heartbeat that can impair the quality of life of the patients. The defects in cardiac rhythm are associated with a significant rise in health care cost and also mortality among the affected population. Ventricular arrhythmias are causing about 75% to 80% of the cardiac deaths annually in the world. The ECG devices, echocardiogram, doppler studies, stress test, holter monitoring test are used to identify the risk of developing cardiac arrhythmias among arrhythmias patients. Currently, one third of the patient’s exhibit an absence of arrhythmia symptoms and patients were not aware of abnormal heart rhythm. Therefore timely detection of clinical symptoms and prescribing better therapeutic approaches may improve the quality of the patients.

Total Pages: 146-159 (14)

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