Tachycardia

Answer 1

Tachycardia is a condition in which the heart beats at an abnormally fast rate of more than 100 beats per minute. This type of arrhythmia is caused by an abnormality in the heart's electrical system. Tachycardia can be treated surgically or with medication.

Reviewed By

Review Date: 10/10/2008

Larry A. Weinrauch, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Private practice specializing in Cardiovascular Disease, Watertown, MA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

Answer 2

While you have tachycardia, your heart beats very quickly even when you're at rest. Tachycardia is a kind of arrhythmia, a condition of the heart's rhythm. The heartbeat speeding up amid physical exertion and emotional turmoil is quite normal. However, if you have tachycardia, your heart beats more quickly than usual in either the upper or lower chambers, or both, even while you're at rest. Tachycardia can take many different forms. They are categorised based on where the aberration originated from and what caused it. Atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia, and ventricular fibrillation are common forms of tachycardia. Unreliable electrical signals in the heart's top chambers, or atria, are what cause atrial fibrillation. Unreliable electrical signals in the heart's top chambers, or atria, are what cause atrial fibrillation. The atria's errant circuitry is the source of atrial flutter. Supraventricular tachycardia is typically congenital and brought on by faulty circuitry, which results in a loop of overlapping signals. Somewhere above the lower chambers or ventricles is where this started. The heart's efficiency is decreased by ventricular tachycardia, which develops in the ventricles and causes the ventricles to pump with insufficient blood volume.