Heart arrhythmia (uh-RITH-me-uh) is referred to as irregular heartbeat, generally, a cardiologist is trained to deal with issues around the heart, however, when it comes to the irregular heartbeat you may be refer to an electrophysiologist. There are different types of heart arrhythmia, and these types are grouped by the speed of the heart rate. There are two types, however, the two types have several types that are grouped into the main two types. The main two types are Tachycardia and Bradycardia, tachycardia talks about the fast heart rate, this happens when the resting heart rate is greater than 100 beats per minute. And Bradycardia is known as a slow heartbeat, which implies that the resting heart rate is less than 60 beats per minute. These two types have different types that will be listed in this article and talked about briefly.

Fast heartbeat which is tachycardias has other types such as Atrial fibrillation (A-fib) which is a chaotic heart signaling that causes uncoordinated heart rate. Another is Atrial flutter which is similar to A-fib but heartbeats are more organized. Atrial flutter can also be linked to causing a stroke. Supraventricular tachycardia is another type of fast heartbeat it is a broad term that includes all irregular heartbeats that start above the lower heart chambers. Ventricular fibrillation is a type of fast heartbeat that occurs when rapid, chaotic electrical signals cause the lower heart chambers, that is the ventricles to quiver instead of contracting in an orderly manner that sends blood to various parts of the body. This type can lead to death if a normal heart rhythm is not restored in minutes, people that get this type usually have underlying heart disease or have experienced serious trauma. Ventricular tachycardia, this rapid, regular heart rate starts with faulty electrical signals in the lower heart chambers, and this does not allow the ventricles to properly be filled with blood, this case can lead to a very serious emergency that requires immediate medical treatment by an electrophysiologist.

Slow heartbeat (bradycardia) types include sick sinus syndrome which is responsible for setting the pace of the heart. If it doesn’t work in order, the heart rate may swing between being too slow or too fast. this type is most common among adults. Then there is conduction block, a block of the heart’s pathways that can cause the signals that trigger the heartbeats to become slow or even stop. Some of these conduction blocks may give no signals or symptoms while others may cause the heart to beat slowly. All of these types can be attended to by an electrophysiologist as that is what they spend extra years learning beyond general cardiology.