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While a heart attack refers to death of heart muscle tissue as a result of blood supply loss, cardiac arrest is caused when the heart's electrical system malfunctions. Furthermore, the American Heart Association explains that "if corrective measures are not taken rapidly, this condition progresses to sudden death.
Without special treatment after circulation is restarted, full recovery of the brain after more than 3 minutes of clinical death at normal body temperature is rare. [6] [7] Usually brain damage or later brain death results after longer intervals of clinical death even if the heart is restarted and blood circulation is successfully restored ...
Cardiomyopathy is a group of primary diseases of the heart muscle. [1] Early on there may be few or no symptoms. [1] As the disease worsens, shortness of breath, feeling tired, and swelling of the legs may occur, due to the onset of heart failure. [1] An irregular heart beat and fainting may occur. [1]
Ventricular fibrillation (V-fib or VF) is an abnormal heart rhythm in which the ventricles of the heart quiver. [2] It is due to disorganized electrical activity. [2] Ventricular fibrillation results in cardiac arrest with loss of consciousness and no pulse. [1]
A typical heart rate is 75 beats per minute (bpm), which means that the cardiac cycle that produces one heartbeat, lasts for less than one second. The cycle requires 0.3 sec in ventricular systole (contraction)—pumping blood to all body systems from the two ventricles; and 0.5 sec in diastole (dilation), re-filling the four chambers of the ...
Asystole (New Latin, from Greek privative a "not, without" + systolē "contraction" [1] [2]) is the absence of ventricular contractions in the context of a lethal heart arrhythmia (in contrast to an induced asystole on a cooled patient on a heart-lung machine and general anesthesia during surgery necessitating stopping the heart).
Human adult thorax, showing the outline of the heart in red. The sensitive zone for mechanical induction of heart rhythm lies between the second and the fourth ribs, to the left of the sternum. Specialty: Cardiology: Complications: Ventricular fibrillation, quickly followed by cardiac arrest and (if not treated) death: Usual onset: Within ...
It is almost always indicative of left ventricular systolic impairment, and carries a poor prognosis. The condition is relatively rare, and patients with the greatest risk for developing pulsus alternans include those with heart failure, cardiomyopathy , coronary artery disease, or other cardiac risk factors.