Arrythmias and anti-arrythmic drugs Flashcards
What is another term for arrythmias?
Dysrhythmia
What does arrythmia mean?
Disturbances in cardiac rhythm
What are the different types of arrythmias?
Bradycardia
Atrial flutter
Atrial fibrillation
Tachycardia
Ventricular fibrillation
What are the types of tachycardia? How are they different?
Ventricular tachycardia - arises from ventricles
Supraventricular tachycardia - arises from above ventricles
What care the causes of ventricular tachycardia?
Ectopic pacemaker activity
Afterdepolarisations
What causes ectopic pacemaker activity?
Damaged area of myocardium
Depolarised because sodium ions leak into cell
Generates action potentials
Dominates over SA node
What is an afterpolarisation?
Abnormal depolarisations following the action potential
What are the causes of supraventricular tachycardias?
Atrial flutter
Atrial fibrillation
Re-entry loop
- atria
- AV node
What are the causes of bradycardia?
Sinus bradycardia
Conduction block
What is sinus bradycardia?
Heart beat still in sinus rhythm
Just below 60bpm
What are the causes of sinus bradycardia?
Intrinsic factors - SA node dysfunction
Extrinsic factors - drugs e.g. beta blockers, some Ca2+ channel blockers
What is sick sinus syndrome?
Cardiac arryhtmias caused by intrinsic SA node dysfunction
What are the causes of conduction block?
Intrinsic factors - problems with AV node, bundle of His
Extrinsic factors - drugs e.g. beta blockers, some Ca2+ ion blockers
What are delayed after-depolarisations?
Membrane depolarises before next action potential
When are delayed after-depolarisations more likely?
When intracellular Ca2+ conc. is high
What are early after depolarisations?
Membrane depolarises during plateu phase of action potential
or during repolarisation phase
What can early after-depolarisations lead to?
Oscillations in the membrane potential
When are early after-depolarisations more likely?
Longer action potential
so a longer QT interval
What happens when two impulses meet each other normally? Why?
Impulses cancel out
due to adjacent area being in refractory period
What is a unidirectional block?
Impulse cannot be conducted in a certain direction along an area of myocardium
How can a re-entry loop occur?
Unidrectional block prevents impulse conduction in a certain direction
Action potential travels via longer route
Goes the opposite way through the uridirectional block
What causes atrial fibrillation?
Multiple re-entry loops in atria
What causes the formation of multiple re-entry loops in the atria?
Stretching of atrial muscle
conductive tissue becomes damaged, irritated
What is AV nodal re-entry?
Formation of re-entry loop within the AV node