A decrease in heart rate per minute compared to normal, which is ninety-one hundred and twenty beats, is characterized by the concept of bradycardia.
Most often, bradycardia is a consequence of a violation of the conduction system of the heart. The danger of this phenomenon is that an excessive decrease in heart rate leads to insufficient blood supply to organs and tissues and, as a result, to hypoxia of the latter, which poses a serious risk to the patient’s health and life.
However, bradycardia does not always indicate the presence of a particular pathology. In some trained people, most often in athletes, bradycardia is a natural phenomenon. Moreover, in this case, such a change in heart rate indicates endurance and good health.
There are several different forms depending on the change in rhythm. The most common form is sinus bradycardia. With this form, the sinus rhythm retains its correct character.
Sometimes sinus bradycardia is combined with extrasystole and even arrhythmia of the act of breathing. However, this is quite rare. Most often, sinus bradycardia is a consequence of the patient's dystonia of the autonomic nervous system.
Thus, with various diseases, sinus bradycardia can develop. The reasons leading to its formation, most often lie in the heart. That is, almost any pathology of the heart, such as heart attacks, coronary disease, various infections, as well as inflammatory processes - myocarditis and endocarditis.
Sometimes sinus bradycardia can talk about the development of myocardial infarction of the posterior wall.
In addition, under the influence of certain pharmaceutical preparations (B-blockers, cardiac glycosides, amiodarone, verapamil, diltiazem, and others), sinus bradycardia can form. Treatment of a drug-associated form is not difficult, it is enough to cancel the appointment of the drug that caused bradycardia.
Also, bradycardia can be caused by natural, physiological changes in the heart tissue, most often such changes are age-related.
Subjectively, bradycardia is manifested by dizziness, shortness of breath, darkening in the eyes, weakness, fatigue, pain in the sternum, palpitations, decreased concentration of attention, memory, and coordination of movements.
Diagnosis of bradycardia is not difficult, even at home. Just count your heart rate per minute.
If there is suspicion of sinus bradycardia, additional diagnostic manipulations are performed. One of the leading and most highly informative diagnostic studies is electrocardiography.
Sometimes there is a special form of transient bradycardia, that is, bradycardia is not constant, but only occasionally appears. In this case, the standard method - conducting an ECG, will not be able to detect bradycardia. To do this, I use a special form of recording a cardiogram of the heart for several hours or even days - "Holter monitoring".
In the event that the occurrence of bradycardia was a consequence of violations in the conduction system of the heart, the installation of a pacemaker may be required.
The goal of treatment is to increase the heart rate to a normal level, at which the body receives a sufficient amount of oxygenated blood.
If untreated, a progressive deterioration of the patient's condition is possible, accompanied by fainting and loss of consciousness, up to a colaptoid state and death.
Thus, the treatment of bradycardia in the first place should be aimed at eliminating the etiological factor.