Causes and symptoms of extrasystole
Extrasystole is a failure of the rhythm of the myocardial muscle and is the most common type of arrhythmia. A characteristic manifestation of extrasystole is often an extraordinary single or paired contraction of the heart muscle.
It is believed that the cause of their appearance is overwork, stress caused by nervous excitement, as well as overstrain of a psychological nature. External stimuli include caffeine, tobacco and alcohol. The manifestations of arrhythmic contractions, as a rule, do not pose a significant threat, with the exception of cases of cardiovascular diseases.
Content:
- Causes of extrasystole
- Symptoms of the development of extrasystole
- Diagnosis of extrasystole
- How to treat extrasystole?
Causes of extrasystole
The main types of the disease include ventricular and atrial extrasystole. In addition, there is a convergent variant of the precordial-ventricular form of the disease. Among other things, it is worth paying attention to the rare cases of excitation in the sinus-precordial node.
The following reasons are noted for which there is a likelihood of extrasystole:
- Poisoning with certain types of poisons;
- Myocardial disease;
- Diseases directly related to the work of internal organs, in particular, the liver and stomach.
- Nervous stress;
- Violations of the nervous regulation of cardiac activity;
- Partial or complete damage to the nervous system.
The progression of the disease is also not excluded if dystrophic changes occur in the body, or processes of an inflammatory nature, directly related to poor blood supply to the heart muscle. In some cases, the cause of the disease can be an ionic-intracellular imbalance, as well as a lack of minerals such as: Na, Mg, K, Ca. Extrasystole can progress with ischemic diseases, myocarditis, myocardial dystrophy and heart disease.
Symptoms of the development of extrasystole
Often, extrasystole is dangerous because the symptomatology, until a certain critical moment, can be latent. People suffering from VSD, as a rule, tolerate this disease more difficult, and, therefore, are more prone to its complications, although for patients whose disease is caused by organic damage to the myocardium, everything proceeds without visible complications.
The disease is characterized by delays in the work of the ventricles, followed by their intensive contraction. At the same time, the patient feels tremors inside the chest.
According to the description of patients, sometimes it seems that inside something is tumbling and turning over, there is a gap between the beats of the pulse. Functional arrhythmia is mainly described by patients as a feeling of discomfort and anxiety, lack of air and feelings of loss of energy. Fever and sweating are common.
Group extrasystoles are able to progress to coronary arrhythmias, presenting an increased risk of ventricular paroxysmal tachycardia, and in precordial, this is a contraction of the atrial region. In addition, the transition of the disease to atrial fibrillation is possible, for patients with a diagnosis of dilatation, or overload of the precordial node.
The cause of chronic insufficiency of the hepatic, cerebral and coronary circulation can be frequent extrasystoles. Ventricular extrasystoles are the most dangerous, as there is a threat that they will cause progressive ventricular fibrillation, which can often lead to unexpected death.
Diagnosis of extrasystole
The most objective method used to diagnose extrasystole is an ECG study. It is less likely that the presence of this type of arrhythmia can be detected by analyzing the patient's complaints and conducting a physical examination.
During the examination, it is necessary to identify the cause of the extrasystole, since cases of damage to the heart muscle of an organic nature, in contrast to functional and toxic ones, require different treatment.
Only after an ECG and a number of other special studies can the diagnosis of extrasystole be confirmed. Often, it is with the help of these methods that extrasystole is identified even when the patient has no complaints.
ECG monitoring (according to Holter) is a fairly long (24-48 hours) recording of an ECG using a portable device fixed on the patient's skin. Registration of ECG indicators also requires filling in a special diary by the patient, where he records his actions and feelings. ECG monitoring is mandatory for all patients with cardiopathology, it does not matter whether they have visible symptoms, according to which extrasystole is diagnosed, as well as the ECG results.
To identify extrasystole that is not recorded by an ECG, you can resort to using the treadmill test and veloergometry. They are tests that can detect arrhythmia during exercise. To diagnose adjacent pathologies of the heart of an organic nature, ultrasound of the heart muscle, stress Echo-KG, MRI of the heart are performed.
How to treat extrasystole?
In the case of extrasystole caused by improper functioning of the endocrine system and the digestive system, the primary disease is treated first.
With arrhythmia, which is neurogenic in nature, sedative herbal preparations or sedatives are prescribed. Also, the reason for the appearance and development of extrasystole may be the intake of certain medications, in which case it is recommended to stop taking them.
When a patient has more than two hundred extraordinary heartbeats per day or cardiac pathology is present, the doctor prescribes drug treatment. For the treatment of patients with unexpressed symptoms and without cardiac pathology, a certain diet is used, associated with an increase in dietary intake of magnesium and potassium, and doctors also recommend moderate exercise and refusal of bad habits. Some companies use a surgical treatment called radiofrequency ablation.
The author of the article: Molchanov Sergey Nikolaevich | Cardiologist
Education: Diploma in "Cardiology" received at the PMGMU. I. M. Sechenov (2015). Here I completed my postgraduate studies and received a diploma "Cardiologist".
