WHAT EXACTLY IS AN ARRHYTHMIA?

The word arrhythmia comes from two Greek words. The first is ‘a-’ which means absence or loss and the second is ‘rhythmos’ which means rhythm. So arrhythmia literally means absence or loss of rhythm. A cardiac arrhythmia therefore means loss of cardiac rhythm. It is however used in medical practice as a description for disturbance rather than absence of heart rhythm. In that sense, the term dysrhy [...]

A is for Arrhythmia

1. Arrhythmia literally translated means absence of a normal heart rhythm. Actually the term dysrhythmia is much more  accurate because this means disturbance of a normal heart rhythm 2. The heart is a pump and to beat most effectively it has to beat at a certain rate and with a certain rhythm and therefore any unsolicited disruption of this will lead to inefficiency of the heart as a pump and the [...]

B is for BNP 

BNP stands for Brain natiruretic peptide  BNP is produced by the walls of the heart when the pressure in the heart goes up excessively. The most common cause for this is to happen is when the heart is damaged or weak. In this setting the heart struggles to push blood out with as much vigour and therefore the pressure within the heart increases, the walls stretch and BNP is produced  BNP is the hea [...]

C is for Cardiomyopathy

In the most simplistic sense cardiomyopathy means a diseased and weakened heart and no more than that. It is therefore never enough as a complete diagnosis. The nature of the cardiomyopathy needs to be described further  Most cardiomyopathies are diagnosed and further stratified either on the basis of the visual appearance of the heart on some form of imaging modality or on the basis of an electri [...]

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