Ventricular fibrillation is the abnormal heartbeat in which the heart beats with erratic rhythm. This condition forces the chambers of your heart to pump and shake uselessly instead of regular work of pumping blood. There will be sudden drop in blood pressure and the blood supply to vital organs is cut off during this process. Often ventricular fibrillation occurs due to heart attack. It is an emergency condition needing immediate medical care. A person getting ventricular fibrillation will not breathe and have increased chances for getting collapsed within seconds. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is done to save the life of the person in emergency department.
Symptoms :
An individual affected with ventricular fibrillation will faint immediately and lose conscious within minutes. There will be some signs that precede ventricular fibrillation indicating that something is seriously wrong in your heart. It will cause intense sharp chest pain, rapid heartbeat with erratic rhythm (tachycardia) and shortness of breath. The person will feel breathless and dizzy and also feel nauseated. Usually these symptoms can occur before one hour of ventricular fibrillation occurs, depending on the health condition of the person. Portable automated defibrillators are available in public places like police patrol cars, shopping malls and in many leading outlets. This will deliver electric shock to the patient that would immediately restore heartbeat normally.
What happens during normal heartbeat?
Your heart expands and contracts in rhythmic pulses driven by electrical impulses. It will follow a precise pathway pumping blood into vital organs. Any interruption (in any form) to these electrical impulses can produce irregular and erratic heartbeat (arrhythmia).
There are 4 chambers in each human heart containing 2 auricles and 2 ventricles. Auricles and ventricles are connected with pumps or valves. When the heart beats, smaller atria present in the auricle contracts thus filling the ventricles with blood. This occurs during the sinus mode when the right atrium sends electrical impulse leading to the contraction of right and left auricles.
This is immediately followed by the contraction of ventricles. The impulse originated from the right atrium will travel to the center of the heart exactly to the area that connects the atria and ventricles. Here the impulse travels into the ventricles making them to contract thus sending blood throughout the body. This process happens continuously in defined rhythms as long as you are alive. Any disruption in the electrical impulse will lead to break in pumping blood causing heart attack.
Causes :