Plz help me cardioalogists! What do these medical terms mean?

Question

My mom went to see her cardioalogist due to having irregular heartbeats and she came back with a medical report with her results from wearing around one of those Holter heart monitors for a day. However, the reports have all these weird medical terms that we can't understand. Her cardioalogists did explain everything to my mom, but her English is not the best so she didn't catch everything the doctor said. So if you help me decipher these wacky terms I'd really appreciate it!

ventricular ectopic activity
supraventricular ectopy
tachycardia
bradycardia
ventricular bigeminy
ventricular trigeminy
ventricular ectopy

Also, I've surfed the web and came up with 3 different possibilities for irregular heartbeats, but they all seem like the same thing. If you happen to have further knowledge in the medical field, could you also include what each thing is? Thanks!

Premature Ventricular Contraction
Premature Artial Contraction
Cardiac Arrhythmia

Answer 1

I think in order to understand all of this you need a basic understanding of what's normal

Check out this link and click on the inset picture.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-arrhythmias/DS00290/DSECTION=2
It will give you an idea with terms about where the impulse for a heart beat originates and then how it makes its way through the heart.

Now any ectopic activity is activity that arrises from a place it normally would not. The ventricle is the bottom two chamber of the heart - so ventricular ectopy is beats coming from the bottom of the heart that would not usually arrise from that location.

Supra means "above." In this case above means the atria, the A-V node or the pathway to the ventricle (see your diagram for help)

Tachy means - greater than 100bpm
Brady means less than 60 bpm

Ventricular bigeminy is a pattern where every other beat is a ventricularly originated beat.

Ventricular trigeminy is a pattern where every third beat is a ventricularly originated beat.

You should be ready for the next one - ventricular (bottom of the heart) ectopy (coming from a place one would not expect a heart beat to originate)

PVC - ventricular contractions occurring before the normal atrially generated beat can be generated.

PAC - an atrial beat that is generated from a place it would not be expected (aka - ectopy) that occurs before the normal area generates a beat. Very common and benign. Often affected by lack of sleep, caffiene, etc.

Arrhythmia - any rhythm other than a regularly occurring rate that is generated in the atria at the SA node (#1 in the diagram). The term for a normal rhythm is called a normal sinus rhythm. Even an irregularly occuring rhythm coming from the right place is considered an arrhythmia.

Every profession has its words to describe things particular to what it deals with. It helps everyone to communicate - so not so wacky, really. I hope this helps. Good luck.

Answer 2

Ventricular ectopy - an abnomal heart beat in the ventricle
supraventricular ectopy- a abnormal beat above the ventricles
tachycardia- a heart beat over 100
bradycardia- a heartbeat under 60
ventricular bigeminy- ventricular beats which come 2 in a row
ventricular trigeminy- ventricular beats which come 3 in a row
ventricular ectopy same as the 1st answer
premature ventricular contraction is an abnormal heartbeat in the ventricles
Premature atrial contractions are early heart beats in the sa node
ventricular ectopy is the same as answer number 1.
You mom is having some really irregular heart arrythmia's. She is probably on medication for them. Many people have these arrythmias and live full lives with them. It depends on what her underlying conditions are. and how healthy she is otherwise.

Answer 3

alright i try y best to answer the simplest way.
premature ventricular contraction(PVC)=periods of of where the heart is irritated due to lack of oxygen to that certain part. so the part of the heart needed xygen for what ever reason. evry has them you, me, the president but when get them often, that can lead to other major problems.

premature artial contraction=this is where your top part of your heart(the artium) for some reason contracted early. for example(the 1 will represent heart beats ok) your heart does this.1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 the 1 together is a PAC>

cardiac arrhymia=your heart cause from slow to normal when you breathe in and out. this is common in childern and older people.

tachycardia=heart rate greatr than 100
badycardia-heart rate less than 60

ventricular bigeminy= where your heart has PVC every other beat.

ventricular trigeminy=where your heart has PVC every third beat.
the rest is condtion that can result from these. if you need more information e-mail me at jedi1medic2yahoo.com good luck