Bradycardia

Causes

The chances of developing bradycardia increase as a person ages. Causes include:

• Normal age-related changes
• Damage caused by heart attack
• Other medical conditions

Many people with bradycardia have heart disease. Some people have coronary heart disease (hardening of the arteries). Others have different heart problems, such as:

• Long-term high blood pressure (hypertension)
• Abnormalities of the heart valves (thin tissues that keep blood flowing in one direction through the heart. Read more about heart valve disease.
• Pericarditis, which is inflammation of the saclike covering of the heart (pericardium)
• Abnormalities of the heart's pumping function

Some people who have bradycardia don't have underlying heart disease. The cause is often unknown. Possible causes include:

• An underactive thyroid or other metabolic imbalance
• Abnormalities within individual heart cells
• Abnormal electrical properties of groups of heart cells
• Emphysema or other lung diseases