title: Arrhythmias: appraisal of symptoms by haemodynamic concepts.
abstract: Arryhthmias can afflict any heart, even in the absence of disease. Given that Cardiac Output (CO) is a product of heart rate and stroke volume, the end-result of brady- and tachy-arrhythmias is the same: low CO with symptoms of low-output state. In bradyarrhythmias, myocardial inotropy operates maximally but the product of stroke volume and slow heart rate yields a low CO. In tacharryhthmias, myocardial inotropy is redundant because the product of low stroke volume arising from low Diastolic Filling Time (DFT) and heart rate also yields a low CO. The hallmark of extrasystole is the duplex of symptoms: dizziness followed by palpitation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Araoye
authors.forename: G O
authors.initials: GO
authors.lastname: Opadijo
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Omotoso
mesh_terms: D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans