Heart rate
The number of heartbeats per unit of time, usually per minute. The heart rate is based on the number of contractions of the ventricles (the lower chambers of the heart). The heart rate may be too fast (tachycardia) or too slow (bradycardia). The pulse is a bulge of an artery from waves of blood that course through the blood vessels each time the heart beats. The pulse is often taken at the wrist to estimate the heart rate.
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- Heart rhythm disorders
Abnormal rhythm of the heartbeat due to irregularities in transmission of the electrical signals that normally control heart rate and rhythm. Also known as arrhythmias. With an arrhythmia, the heartbeats may be irregular or too slow (bradycardia), too rapid (tachycardia), or occur too early. When a single heartbeat occurs earlier than normal, it is called […]
- Heart septum
The dividing wall between the right and left sides of the heart. That portion of the septum that separates the right and left atria of the heart is termed the atrial, or interatrial, septum, whereas the portion of the septum that lies between the right and left ventricles of the heart is called the ventricular, […]
- Heart test, EPS
If a person needs a pacemaker. (This can usually be decided without an EPS but once in a while EPS is necessary.) Why a person is fainting (if other tests to find a basis have failed to find one). If a person is prone to a fast heart rhythm (tachycardia) and guide the appropriate treatment […]
- Heart transplant
cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle); severe coronary artery disease (in which the heart’s blood vessels become blocked and the heart muscle is damaged); and congenital heart disease (birth defects of the heart). A transplanted heart functions differently from the old one. Because the nerves leading to the heart are cut during the operation, the […]
- Heart valves
There are four heart valves. All are one-way valves. Blood entering the heart first passes through the tricuspid valve and then the pulmonary valve. After returning from the lungs, the blood passes through the mitral (bicuspid) valve and exits via the aortic valve.