Arrhythmia

Types

Heart arrhythmias vary in terms of types and degree of severity. A comprehensive diagnosis at Mayo Clinic helps to determine the type of heart arrhythmia, how severe it is and what treatment options may be most appropriate for the patient. Mayo Clinic provides patients with medical experts and state-of-the-art facilities for diagnosing and treating all types of heart arrhythmias in all ages of patients, including:

Atrial fibrillation
The electrical signals in the upper chambers of the heart are not organized and flowing rhythmically through the heart muscle.

Atrial flutter
An abnormal conduction path within an upper chamber of the heart causes too many heart-beat signals.

Bradycardia
The natural pacemaker cells in the heart do not send signals to beat at the proper rate, or the signals do not travel all the way to the pumping chambers in the heart.

• Sick sinus syndrome

  An unsteady beat, usually in older people, may be caused by the natural pacemaker cells in the heart not sending electrical signals properly.

• Stokes-Adams heart block

  A missing electrical pathway in the heart causes the heart muscle to beat too slowly.

Long QT syndrome
The electrical signal to the pumping chamber of the heart takes too much time to complete, causing the heart to beat too rapidly.

Tachycardia
Tachycardias, or abnormally fast heartbeats, are divided into two categories: supraventricular tachycardias (fast heartbeats that begin above the ventricles in the atria), and ventricular tachycardias (fast heartbeats that begin in the ventricles). If the heart beats too fast, there is not enough time between contractions for the ventricles to fill with blood, and pumping becomes ineffective.

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome
An extra electrical pathway in the heart causes too many signals to the heart muscle and it beats too fast.