Does Tachycardia Cause Nerve Damage?

What is Tachycardia?

• Tachycardia is a condition where your heart beats very rapidly--usually more than 100 beats per minute, but it is not from exercise or any normal external stimuli. Tachycardia starts in the upper chambers (the atria) or the lower (ventricles) of your heart. If you experience symptoms of tachycardia, you need to see your doctor right away for a proper diagnosis, because its effects don't just stop at a rapid heartbeat.
  
  

Atrial and Ventricular Tachycardia

• Atrial fibrillation (the most common) is experienced by some 2.2 million Americans age 75 or older, according to research done by the Sarver Heart Center. Impulses travel in a rapid but disorganized manner through your heart's atrium, then down into the ventricles causing irregular, rapid heartbeats. With atrial fibrillation you are at risk for a stroke.
  
  Atrial flutter is similar to atrial fibrillation except that the impulses are semi-organized instead of disorganized. Atrial flutter also carries some risk of stroke.
  
  Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), which is more common in young adults, is when the heart suddenly starts racing (it can go from a normal 60 beats per minute up to 200). SVT can be caused by an abnormal "impulse" connection between the atrium and ventricle, so that the electronic signal for a heartbeat does not travel in normal fashion.
  
  Ventricular tachycardia is the most serious. It often occurs after you have had a heart attack and developed scar tissue. This scar tissue interferes with the normal heartbeat and the heart can accelerate from 120 up to 200 beats per minute. This type of tachycardia can cause collapse or cardiac arrest.
  
  

Can Tachycardia Cause Nerve Damage?

• Tachycardia can affect the nervous system, not so much due to rapid heartbeats, but to the conditions those heartbeats trigger, such as stroke, heart attack or congestive heart failure.
  
  Treatments for tachycardia, particularly treatments involving surgery, can also cause nerve damage.
  
  

Diagnosis and Treatment of Tachycardia

• Your doctor diagnoses tachycardia by monitoring your heart beat and from the results of an electrocardiogram (ECG) test. Additional tests might be necessary to pinpoint which type you have and its severity.
  
  Treatment can include medication, installing a pacemaker to regulate the heart, and surgery. It can also encompass learning relaxation techniques and biofeedback.
  
  

Dysautonomia

• The term dysautonomia covers a range of disorders that affect how the autonomic nervous system (ANS) functions. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke some of these disorders, particularly changes in blood pressure, can be linked to the effects of tachycardia.
  
  Dysautonomia triggered by tachycardia includes: postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and vasovagal syncope (impairs the functioning of the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain down through esophagus, lungs, hearts and into the abdomen).
  
  Other dysautonomic disorders include mitral valve prolapse dysautonomia, neurocardiogenic syncope (NCS), neurally mediated hypotension (NMH) and other ANS instabilities.
  
  

Other Types of Nerve Damage

• Right cardiac sympathetic nerve damage can occur in patients who experience either paroxysmal tachycardia, which starts and stops abruptly, or persistent atrial fibrillation.
  
  If you have a pacemaker installed or cardiac surgery, these can cause phrenic nerve damage. The phrenic nerve helps trigger the diaphragm muscle that lets you breathe.