Bradycardia can be considered normal in athletes and indicates a well-trained body. But more often this condition accompanies various pathologies from the side of the heart. So bradycardia - what is it? This is a type of arrhythmia in which there is a slowdown in the frequency of heart contractions to 60 beats per minute. The failure of heart beats in this case is associated with a malfunction of the sinus node, the so-called pacemaker.
Causes of bradycardia
The following conditions can trigger a heart rhythm failure:
hypothyroidism - a thyroid disease;
hypothermia - a decrease in body temperature;
hyperkalemia - a disease characterized by an increased content of potassium in the blood;
hypercalcemia - excess calcium in the blood;
increased intracranial pressure;
myocardial infarction;
excess doses of drugs designed to eliminate heart failure;
infectious diseases;
Botkin's disease (jaundice);
starvation;
atherosclerosis of the vessels of the heart;
post-infarction cardiosclerosis.
Bradycardia: what is it and what types of it happens
Depending on the revealed violations, the pathology is divided into sinus bradycardia, which is characterized by a slowed-down operation of the main pacemaker, and bradycardia resulting from a violation (block) of cardiac impulses at different levels (between the atria and the ventricle or sinus node). Heart rate can slow down for a number of reasons, such as in athletes, in sleep or at rest. Such bradycardia is called physiological. If the heart rate slows down with any disease, then this is already pathological bradycardia. It can be acute and disappear on its own after eliminating the disease that caused such a deviation, or chronic as a result of age-related heart diseases.
Bradycardia: symptoms and treatment
Physiological bradycardia may not cause hemodynamic failure. With a slowed heart rhythm, there is a lack of blood supply and oxygen starvation of organs and tissues, this leads to a violation of their full functioning. If the heart rate is reduced to 40 beats per minute, a person may feel dizziness, weakness, shortness of breath. He is thrown into a cold sweat; he may even faint. This is because the heart is not able to pump blood in the required rhythm, the blood supply to the brain is disturbed, oxygen starvation occurs. During such a swoon, the risk of sudden cardiac arrest increases .
Therapy
You should be very careful about such a thing as bradycardia. That this is a pathological condition requiring the consultation of an experienced specialist should not be in doubt. The sooner the doctor conducts an examination and carries out all the necessary manipulations, the sooner the patient's condition will return to normal. Physiological and moderate bradycardia are not accompanied by clinical symptoms and do not need therapy. With a pathological form, it is necessary to treat the underlying disease. If the development of diseases such as angina pectoris, heart failure, arterial hypotension, gastric arrhythmia is observed, it is necessary to take active steps to treat bradycardia. In especially severe cases, it may be necessary to consult a cardiac surgeon and the possible implantation of an artificial heart rate driver that generates impulses with a physiological frequency.
After reading this article, you learned more information about a disease such as bradycardia: what it is, what are the symptoms and causes of this condition.