heart and blood vessel disorders
Ventricular Tachycardia
Introduction
Ventricular tachycardia is a heart rhythm that originates in the ventricles (lower chambers of the heart) and produces a heart rate of at least 120 beats per minute (the normal heart rate is usually between 60 and 100 beats per minute). People almost always have palpitations and other symptoms of Heart Failure (HF) (for example, breathlessness, chest discomfort, and/or fainting). Electrocardiography is used to make the diagnosis. Drugs and procedures to destroy abnormal areas of the ventricles may be used, but usually an automatic implantable defibrillator is required. (See also Overview of Abnormal Heart Rhythms .) The electrical current that begins each heartbeat originates in the heart’s pacemaker (called the sinus node or sinoatrial node), located in the top of the upper right heart chamber (right atrium). However, a heartbeat is sometimes triggered from one of the lower chambers of the heart, the ventricles. People may have only a few heartbeats triggered by the ventricles ( Ventricular Premature Beats ), but sometimes people have a sequence of consecutive Sustained ventricular tachycardia usually occurs in people with a structural heart disorder such as a Acute Coronary Syndromes (Heart Attack; Myocardial Infarction; Unstable Angina) , 