Tachycardia

Causes

The chance of developing tachycardia increases as a person ages. Fewer than one in every 100 people in their 50s has tachycardia, but about 10 in every 100 people in their 80s have the condition.

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

• Long-term high blood pressure (hypertension)
• Abnormalities of the heart valves
• Pericarditis, inflammation of the saclike covering of the heart (pericardium)
• Abnormalities of the heart's pumping function
• Dysfunction of the heart's natural pacemaker (sinus node)
• Damaged heart muscle, also called cardiomyopathy

Some people who have tachycardia do not have underlying heart disease. The cause is often unknown. But possible causes include:

• Overactive thyroid or other metabolic imbalance
• Abnormalities within individual heart cells
• Abnormal electrical properties of groups of heart cells
• Emphysema or other lung diseases
• Exposure to heart stimulants, such as caffeine, tobacco or alcohol
• Rapidly firing triggers, ("hot spots") often located in the veins that return blood from the lungs to the heart (pulmonary veins) — that cause atrial fibrillation
• Older age
• Sleep apnea
• Electrolyte imbalance
• Genetics