Cardio

9/14/99

 

Stokes-Adams Syndrome

• Heart rate is just too slow
• Common among the elderly
• Bradycardia
• Vagotonia is the cause
• Give atropine which blocks the Vagus
• Korr did a lot of research in this area

 

Sinus Arrest

• Lack of a P wave
• The SA node did not fire in a certain time frame
• Nodal Escape Beat—when the AV node takes over to make the heart beat when the SA node did not fire
• How do you know the signal came from the AV node
• The AV node is above the ventricles
• Supraventricular Escape
• The signal will look the same as if it had come from the SA node
• If it came from the ventricular wall the signal would have looked totally different

 

Sinus Arrhythmia

• One of the most common benign finding
• Normal in younger individuals who are otherwise healthy
• In older individuals is could be important

 

Atrial Fibrillation

• Pathology
• One of the most common
• Ventricles are beating
• The ventricles do not fire at every SA node, if it did, it would beat 300bpm

• The AV node are protecting the ventricles and only letting certain signals go to the ventricles
• SA node is constantly firing
• Blood in atria can coagulate and form a clot which can go to the brain or lungs