What is Pediatric Tachycardia?

Tachycardia is when your heart beats faster than normal for any length of time, from several seconds to many hours. Usually, your resting heart rate is 60 to 100 beats per minute. But you have tachycardia, if your heart beats more than 100 times per second when you are resting.

Your heart beats too rapidly, so it never has time to fill with blood between beats. This is dangerous when your heart can't supply all your cells with the blood and oxygen they need. Your heart usually responds to electrical stimuli from the Sino-Atrial (SA) node. These stimuli instruct it on how often you want it to pump. However, if it's very emotional or upset, or if you are exercising. This is sinus tachycardia, which subsides if you sedate or sleep. Other types of tachycardia may return episodically and can be more dangerous.

What are the symptoms of Tachycardia?

Tachycardia may not exhibit symptoms at all, especially when short-term and benign. Some patients experience a range of symptoms according to their inflexibility. There are some general symptoms mentioned below-

Pulsations: A fluttering or throbbing feeling in the chest, usually described as a sensation of your heart missing a beat, fluttering, or thumping.
Dizziness or dizziness: Dizziness is sometimes caused by a tachycardia that reduces the flow of blood to the brain.
Shortness of breath: This may result from the fact that your heart is not pumping blood.
Chest pain or tingling: Chest pain can be associated with some cardiac arrhythmias, but in a potential heart attack.
Weakness or fatigue: Your heart is not operating effectively, hence you may feel suddenly drained or weak.
Anxiety: An abnormal or racing heart can cause anxiety.

What causes Tachycardia?

Physiologically normal response: Physical exercise, stress, worry, and some medications like decongestants and stimulants can all give the body a temporary push in increasing the heartbeat.
Cardiac underlying disease: Tachycardia can be brought about by problems in electrical activity in the heart due to coronary artery disease, problems with the heart valves, cardiomyopathy, which is the weakening of the heart muscle, or cognitive heart abnormalities.
Electrolyte disorder: Over levels of minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium affect the heart's electrical activity and lead to tachycardia.
Thyroid disease: The heartbeat speed is impacted by both an overactive and an underactive gland in the thyroid.
Dehydration: When the body is dry, blood gets thick, and the heart pumps poorly; the heart speeds up to keep up.
Substance: In some persons, overuse of caffeine, alcohol, or certain illicit drugs can cause tachycardia.

How is tachycardia diagnosed?

Your doctor will take your medical history and conduct a check-up on you. They may also ask you for some tests.

What tests would be conducted to diagnose tachycardia?

Tachycardia could be diagnosed with the following tests by your doctor:

Electrocardiogram, or EKG.
The Holter examiner or another type of wearable examiner.
Stress test.
Echocardiogram

How is tachycardia treated?

The two primary objectives of the therapy of tachycardia are to get rid of an arrhythmia and avoid new arrhythmia episodes.

Some underlying conditions that are causing tachycardia may be treated, which can diminish or eradicate episodes of a rapid heartbeat. Reducing an elevated heart rate.

An elevated heart rate may resolve with time. But sometimes, the heart rhythm must be lowered with medication or another form of treatment.

The following are the techniques that assist in lowering the rapid heartbeat-

Vagal maneuvers: Heart rate can be decreased through simple but concentrated maneuvers like coughing or stooping, just like when one is passing stool, or even by using an ice pack on the face. Your care team may ask you to carry out those specific maneuvers when you are having a rapid heartbeat. It works through the actions on the vagus nerve. That nerve controls the heartbeat.
Medications: Medication would be required to alter the heartbeat rhythm if vagal maneuvers fail to slow the rapid heartbeats.
Cardioversion: Electrodes or a patch are applied to the chest to administer an electrical shock to restore a normal heartbeat. Cardioversion tends to be applied when medications and vagus nerve techniques fail, or if one needs to be treated immediately. It can be done during medicine.

Future avoidance of high blood pressure situations-

Treatment for tachycardia would involve doing something to prevent the heart from beating too fast. This may be in the form of some cardiac procedures and treatments, some implanted devices, or medication.

Pharmaceuticals: The prescription of medicines to regulate the heart rate is very common.
Catheter ablation. In this procedure, your doctor punctures a blood vessel, typically located in the groin, by using a thin, flexible tube called a catheter. The scar that occurs inside the heart is caused by a heat or cold sensor located at the tip of the catheter. The scar blocks the passing of even electrical signals. This can restore a normal heartbeat.

One can access the heart without surgery, but catheter ablation can often be done along with other heart procedures.

Pacemakers: A small device implanted under your skin in your chest during the medical procedure. If the device detects an irregular heartbeat, it sends electrical impulses to your heart to regulate its rhythm.
The device is termed an "implantable cardioverter defibrillator" or ICD. This device is inserted under your skin close to your collarbone. The ICD continuously monitors your heart rate, but if this device identifies your heart's rhythm as irregular, it will shock the heart with low- or high-energy pulses to restore a normal heartbeat.

This is prescribed by your doctor if you are at an increased risk of experiencing ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia.

Maze procedure: The physician performs minor cuts in the right and left upper chambers of the heart, which are believed to make a shape of scar tissue. This pattern is known as the labyrinth. The scar tissue interrupts the blocking of the signal within the heart. Thus, the maze may be able to halt some forms of tachycardia by blocking the wrong electrical signals into the heart.
Surgical procedures: At times, other electrical pathways that cause tachycardia have to be destroyed through an open cardiac surgery. In most cases, surgery is applied only if other forms of treatment prove ineffective or when other conditions in the heart need surgery.

What can I expect when having tachycardia?

Depending on which kind of tachycardia you have, the symptoms may be offensive, very dangerous (ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation), or a combination. Medications and other therapies help control the symptoms. You may need to be fitted with a Holter monitor or undergo electrophysiology testing to see if your medication is working.

Living With

How can I take care of myself?

Take every drug that your doctor has prescribed for you and do not miss any of the follow-up appointments.

Why Tender Palm Super-Speciality Hospital for Pediatric Tachycardia?

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 Tachycardia.