ARRHYTHMIA

The term Arrhythmia refers to disturbances to heart rhythm or simply irregular heartbeats. The issue usually arises in patients under physiological and pathological conditions. In the case of arrhythmia, the SA node may or may not be the pacemaker. In such situations when the SA node is not the pacemaker, any of the other parts of the heart such as Atrial muscle, AV node and Ventricular muscle becomes the pacemaker. Accordingly the condition of arrhythmia is classified into two main divisions namely Normotopic arrhythmia and Ectopic arrhythmia.

Normotopic arrhythmia has three forms namely sinus arrhythmia, sinus tachycardia and sinus bradycardia. Normal sinus rhythm means the normal heartbeat with SA as the pacemaker. Under normal physiological conditions in a normal healthy person, the heart rate varies according to the phases of respiratory cycle. Heart rate increases during inspiration and decreases during expiration. This type of rhythmical increase and decrease in heart rate in relation to respiration is called sinus arrhythmia of respiratory sinus arrhythmia.