Patient was educated on pathophysiology of atrial flutter as follows:
- Heart has a natural pacemaker, SA node, which initiates the impulse for a heartbeat.
- The impulse initiated in the SA node, with the help of other conductive tissues, spreads along the rest of heart muscle, thus helping with the programmed opening and closing of heart valves, organized contraction of individual heart chambers, and preventing any disturbance to the normal blood flow.
- In a healthy heart with normally functioning SA node, the beats are evenly spaced out, at a rate of 60 – 100 beats/minute. This evenly spaced out pattern of heartbeats is called the normal heart rhythm or sinus rhythm.
- Atrial flutter is a pathological condition, in which this normal sinus rhythm is disturbed. During atrial flutter, the atria or upper chambers of the heart contract very rapidly than usual.
- In atrial flutter, the impulse originated in the SA node travels via an abnormal scar tissue circuit around the atria, in a continuous loop. Scar tissue can form during healing of the cardiac tissue from damage due to excessive cholesterol deposition, reduced blood flow to heart muscle, history of heart attack (myocardial infarction), and many more factors.
- This continuous stimulation of the atria at a rate of 200 – 300 beats per minute results in rapid and more frequent contractions of the atria or upper chambers in comparison to the ventricles or lower chambers.
- This abnormal and rapid contraction of the upper chambers will put the heart out of synchronization with the contraction of the lower chambers, thus resulting in an abnormal heart rhythm.
- Effective and organized contraction of heart chambers is important for normal blood flow and adequate pumping of blood by heart to vital organs. Abnormal and rapid rhythm of atrial flutter results in ineffective contractions of the heart chambers and poor pumping activity.
- Ineffective and abnormal contractions of the heart chambers result in compromised output of oxygenated blood volume from the heart and reduced flow to vital organs, thus affecting their function.
- This abnormal heart rhythm could be temporary with normal rhythm restored or could be persistent needing management with medications.
