Signs and symptoms
The term cardiac arrhythmia covers a very large number of very different conditions.The most common symptom of arrhythmia is an awareness of an abnormal heartbeat, called palpitations. These may be infrequent, frequent, or continuous. Some of these arrhythmias are harmless (though distracting for patients) but some of them predispose to adverse outcomes.Some arrhythmias do not cause symptoms and are not associated with increased mortality. However, some asymptomatic arrhythmias are associated with adverse events. Examples include a higher risk of blood clotting within the heart and a higher risk of insufficient blood being transported to the heart because of a weak heartbeat. Other increased risks are of embolization and stroke, heart failure, and sudden cardiac death.If an arrhythmia results in a heartbeat that is too fast, too slow, or too weak to supply the bodys needs, this manifests as lower blood pressure and may cause lightheadedness, dizziness, syncope or brain death due to insufficient supply of blood to the brain.Some types of arrhythmia result in cardiac arrest, or sudden death.Medical assessment of the abnormality using an electrocardiogram is one way to diagnose and assess the risk of any given arrhythmia. Mechanism
Cardiac arrhythmia are caused by one of two major mechanism. The first of arrhythmia is a result of enhanced or abnormal impulse formation originating at the pacemaker or the His-Purkinje network. The second is due to reentry conduction disturbances. Diagnostic
Cardiac arrhythmia is often first detected by simple but nonspecific means: auscultation of the heartbeat with a stethoscope, or feeling for peripheral pulses.
See also
Pre-excitation syndrome
Holiday heart syndrome

References
External links

Arrhythmia at Curlie