What is Pediatric Bradycardia?

Bradycardia is a medical condition in which the heart beats less than 60 times per minute, which is considered very surprising or slow. This condition can be dangerous if it prevents the heart from pumping enough blood to meet the body's requirements. Bradycardia also occurs in healthy individuals, primarily in physically busy people.

What are the symptoms of pediatric bradycardia?

A slow heartbeat can cause many symptoms. These symptoms help your physician determine how tight your cardiac situation is and decide on the best treatment for you.

Dizziness habitual
Fatigue
Shallow breathing
Fainting

What is bradycardia caused by?

Bradycardia can result from several causes. The leading cause of bradycardia is:

Congenital heart disease (i.e., the condition you were born with)
Old age
In scarring as a result of a heart attack
Sick sinus rhythm, sometimes referred to as sinus nodal dysfunction (the heart's natural pacemaker not working correctly)
Heart blockage

How is it diagnosed, and what tests will be done to make this diagnosis?

Bradycardia is an ailment that a doctor can quickly diagnose. This is upon conducting a physical examination and performing other tests that measure your heart's rhythm and pace. The following tests will most likely be conducted for most patients with this health condition. These are as follows:

Physical examination: Your doctor examines you to search for any overt indications of illness or other issues. They could also feel the area, as some conditions cause changes that the naked eye cannot see.
Electrocardiogram: This is one of the most crucial diagnostic tests for bradycardia since it measures the heart's electrical activity very closely. For this test, several sensors called electrodes are applied to the breast skin. The electrodes measure the electrical load that occurs in the heart, and these measurements climb up the increasing voltage on a printout or computer screen.

Laboratory tests for bradycardia have also been established, which can help rule out other causes. Some of these tests include:

Status of electrolytes: It identifies the level of electrolytes in the blood, such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium.
Status of thyroid hormone: Bradycardia might be caused by hypothyroidism as well, known as an underactive thyroid.
Troponin: Troponin is a protein in the heart muscle cells. When these cells are damaged, troponin may leak into the blood as a marker of cardiac injury. Troponin is an essential marker that physicians use to diagnose a heart attack.
Toxicology screen: This test detects toxic substances in your blood. This test can identify drugs (traditional or recreational) or other heart-damaging substances that might be causing bradycardia.

What is the treatment of bradycardia?

The treatment approach for bradycardia depends on what's causing the slower-than-normal heart rate and the case's symptoms. However, it is similar to hypothyroidism, which causes a slow heart rate, which is another medical problem.

Treating these disorders with new medicines may lead to the return of a normal heartbeat. However, you might be eligible for a device implanted in the heart called a pacemaker.

The catheters are thin tubings inserted within the body under the skin, usually along either the left or right side of the chest, just below the collarbone, where they will restore function to the heart when the damage to the electrical system slows down the heart rate.

Pacemakers ease the symptoms of bradycardia by stimulating the heart using electrical impulses, thus increasing the heart rate.

What is the best way to prevent or at least reduce risks associated with developing bradycardia?

For most people, it is impossible to avoid bradycardia. That is particularly so when its manifestation surfaces due to fantastic physical condition or natural aging processes.

Bradycardia may only be avoided if the following is applicable.

Recreational drugs: These are medications not prescribed by a medical professional. They are not given in a clinical setting. Avoid recreational drugs, particularly opioids and cannabis-based medications, to avoid bradycardia.
Infected patients: Treatment of the infection, regardless of the severity of the infection, can drastically reduce the chance of developing chronic heart disease.
Anorexia nervosa: Such a disorder, if treated, helps avoid long-term conditions such as bradycardia.

In other cases, bradycardia always happens abruptly. Since it is unpredictable, it can't be prevented. Aging causes many people to have bradycardia despite their actions toward reducing the risk of having it.

How does this condition affect my child's body?

A child with bradycardia has a heart beating slower than the average adult heart. It becomes a problem when the heart is pumping too sluggishly to keep up with the body's demand for oxygen. That lack of blood flow and oxygen affects your child's whole body, especially the brain and heart.

How soon after treatment will my child feel better?

As your child starts treatment, the symptoms of the condition will improve. Many treatments for this condition start to work quickly, such as IV treatments. Your child will notice that the immediate effects of surgery on their symptoms will subside right away. In the case of a pacemaker, your child will feel much better in general while healing from the treatment.

Most patients improve within weeks following the implantation of a pacemaker. Your doctor may be able to better explain to you what to expect and the likelihood that your child will improve.

What should I expect if I have this condition?

For most people, bradycardia does not cause symptoms, at least in those who experience it under otherwise healthy conditions.

Those who do have symptoms or issues that bradycardia causes are at a higher risk of full recovery if it is diagnosed and treated soon. Delays in treatment, primarily when bradycardia occurs due to specific conditions, likely increase your risk of complications or death.

Living With

How can I manage my symptoms?

You should take the following steps if you have symptomatic bradycardia.

Seek your physician.
You will require a medical check-up to obtain good advice on self-monitoring.
Adhere to your medications.
But follow your medication recommendation if you have bradycardia and you are on drug therapy for it, too. If you have any concerns or plans, you may also ask your physician to give you more information on taking your medications safely.
See your provider as needed and advised. But you should see your doctor when they tell you to if you have bradycardia, but do not have symptoms. Tracking your condition over time will enable you to find implicit signs of trouble.

Why Tender Palm Super-Speciality Hospital for Pediatric Bradycardia?

Tender Palm Hospital has the most experienced team of Pediatric Cardiologists, Pediatric Cardiac Surgeons, and diagnostics with the latest and International standard infection control measures in Lucknow, India. The Pediatric Cardiac Science Centre team has decades of experience in successfully treating Pediatric Bradycardia.