Heart Rhythm Disorder: Causes, Symptoms & Treatments

An irregular heartbeat is when your heart beats too fast, too slow or with an irregular
pattern. Premature or extra beats are the most common type of arrhythmia. This usually
feels like a fluttering in the chest or a feeling of a skipped heartbeat. Heart has an
electrical system that instructs it when to beat and push blood around the body. If there
is a trouble with this system the person might experience heart rhythm disorders.

The most common type of heart arrhythmia is Atrial fibrillation which arises when the
normal beating in the upper chambers of the heart is irregular, and blood doesnt flow
properly the way it should from the atria (upper chambers) to the lower chambers of the
heart.

Fast heart patterns such as supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), inappropriate sinus

tachycardia, atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation (AF), ventricular tachycardia (VT) and
ventricular fibrillation (VF) are called as tachycardias. Whereas, slow heart patterns such
as AV heart block, bundle branch block and tachybrady syndrome are
called bradycardias.

Heart rhythm disorder causes is due to the problems with the heart's electrical
conduction system such as abnormal or extra signals might occur or the electrical
signals can be blocked or slowed down or can even travel in new or different pathways
through the heart. Some of the heart rhythm disorder causes are mentioned below:

heart failure & heart attack

congenital heart defects
high blood pressure
infections that damage the heart muscle or the sac around the heart
diabetes
acute sleep disorders
An overactive or underactive thyroid gland
Arrhythmias may also develop due to the use of certain drugs such as Alcohol, caffeine,
or stimulants such as amphetamines, Beta-blockers, Cigarette smoking etc. It is also
possible sometimes that medication prescribed to treat one type of Arrhythmia can
cause another type of arrhythmia.
Symptoms of heart rhythm disorder may be from barely perceptible to cardiovascular
collapse and even death. Random moments of arrhythmias are usually harmless but,
when arrhythmias last for a long time serious arrhythmia symptoms might be developed
such as:

fatigue
dizziness
lightheadedness
fainting
rapid heartbeat or pounding
 anxiety
shortness of breath
sweating
chest pain
collapse and cardiac arrest (in extreme cases)
Heart rhythm disorders may be due to many different reasons. However some of the
common reasons are:
Smoking
Alcohol consumption
Drug use
Stress
Age
Arrhythmia diagnosis and treatment is very necessary and needs to be attended with higher
priority if it is serious. Some of the common treatments are:
Electrical "shock" therapy (defibrillation or cardioversion)
Implanting a short-term heart pacemaker
Medications given through a vein (intravenous) or by mouth
Medications called anti-arrhythmic drugs may be used to prevent an
arrhythmia from happening again
Cardiac ablation is used to destroy areas in your heart that causes
heart rhythm problems
An implantable cardiac defibrillator is placed for patients who are at
high risk of sudden cardiac death
Pacemaker might be placed to send a signal to the heart to make the
heart beat at the correct pace.

Narayana Health is one of the best hospital in India for irregular heart beat treatment with
some of the best skilled doctors in the country. Narayana health is the best hospital in India
with 23 hospitals, 7 heart centers and a network of primary health centres across India and
also1 hospital in the Cayman Islands. Narayana health provides high quality healthcare
services for Arrhythmia treatment in India with a team of best physicians who are dedicated
and experienced. This superspeciality hospital in India provides advanced care in almost 30
specialties including cardiology and cardiac surgery, cancer care, neurology and
neurosurgery, orthopaedics, nephrology and urology and gastroenterology.