Signs, Symptoms, And Treatment of Cardiac Arrhythmia

What is Cardiac Arrhythmia?

Cardiac Arrhythmia is defined as abnormal beats or palpitations of the heart muscle. It can lead to anxiety and great discomfort. Cardiac Arrhythmias can cause embolus (an abnormal particle such as an air bubble or part of a clot) to circulate in the blood, or a paralytic stroke. Some cardiac arrhythmias are relatively minor, but in any event can be quite alarming. A small area in the upper chamber of the heart, known as the sinoatrial node or sinus node, controls heart rate.

What are the symptoms of Cardiac Arrhythmia?

Signs and symptoms of cardiac arrhythmia include sudden, abnormal development of increased or reduced heartbeat. They can be frequent, infrequent, or consistent. Although sometimes harmless, it could result in an unfortunate conclusion if not treated. Patient's with cardiac arrhythmia are at high risk for forming blood clots and unavoidably, a weakened heart beat. Other fatalities include stroke, heart attack and cardiac death. Cardiac arrhythmia symptoms include low blood pressure and weakness.

Cardiac Arrhythmia Treatment:

• Physical Exercises


• Antiarrhythmics such as anticoagulant medication like heparin and warfarin help to reduce blood clotting.


• Electricity: This method involves shock therapy using implanted electrodes.


• Electrical Cautery: This treatment uses fine probes inserted to map electrical activity. Once the abnormal conduction areas are identified, they are treated with heat, cold, laser or electrical probes.

Common Cardiac Arrhythmias:

Tachycardia is manifested as a heart rate faster than 100 beats per minute. Too rapid tachycardia can disrupt the pumping action of the heart, which can cause sudden death.

Normal Sinus Rhythm

Ventricular Tachycardia (V-Tach, or VT)

As a nurse working in the critical care cardiac unit, I have witnessed first hand the effects of this deadly arrhythmia. A patient experiencing V-Tach, or ventricular tachycardia, becomes unresponsive and the heart monitor sounds an alarm. The monitor is showing a heart rate of over 300 beats per minute, and the QRS complex is abnormally shaped in spikes. The heart rate is so rapid that the patient is not perfusing and there is a decreased cardiac output. However, we had one male patient who was able to tolerate the V-Tach without losing conciousness. The doctor treated this by massaging the carotid artery.

On a side note, the use of the term "arrhythmia" as opposed to "dysrhythmia" has been hotly debated. A-rrthymia actually means the absence of a rhythm, while dys-rhythmia is an abnormal rhythm. Such was the debate a nurse practioner was having with hospital administration some years ago. When you consider the terms "a-typical" meaning not typical, verses "typical", you can see her point. Her contention was, the correct term to use would be "dys-rhythmia", referring to abnormal heart rhythm, instead of using a-rrhythmia which denotes an absence of a heart rhythm. In other words, the correct term should be cardiac dysrhythmia, not cardiac arrhythmia. And the debate goes on.

Bradycardia is a heart rate less than 60 beats per minute and is usually not life-threatening.

Fibrillation is a more serious cardiac arrhythmia. In fibrillation, the heart’s muscle elicits a quivering motion due to lack of coordination in contractile cell function. This can an affect on the atrium and cause atrial fibrillation, leading to an affect the ventricle causing ventricular fibrillation, a life threatening situation. Effective pumping of blood stops when a heart goes into what doctors call ‘V-fib’, a condition considered as a form of cardiac arrest.

Survival is unlikely unless CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resusitation) is begun right away.

SADS or the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome, is the result of ignoring cardiac arrhymias. This syndrome refers to sudden death brought on by cardiac arrest triggered by neglected arrhythmia.

A frequent consequence of cardiac arrhythmia is coronary artery disease. Therefore, a number of inherited heart conditions and diseases can cause sudden death at any age.

by Barb Hicks, RN/LMT