Do Bradyarrhythmia & Bradycardia denote same abnormality or are there some finer differences between the two?? In text provided by my college, it appears bradycardia condition comes under the condition bradyarrhythmia..I tried searching about the difference between them but most sites do not offer a correct explanation..Kindly help!
1 Answer
Literally translating the terms would say that bradycardia is a "slow heart" and a bradyarrhythmia is a "slow abnormal/irregular (heartbeat)". In many cases they will substantially overlap, and I think you will find that different writers make different levels of distinction between them, so you'll have to use surrounding context to infer the intended meaning.
Consider the opinion statement at the beginning of this article:
Dresing, T. J., & Wilkoff, B. L. (2001). Bradyarrhythmias. Current treatment options in cardiovascular medicine, 3(4), 291-298.
in which the authors argue:
In our opinion, the term bradyarrhythmia should be reserved for bradycardias (heart rates less than 60) that are associated with symptoms such as syncope or near-syncope, congestive heart failure, exercise intolerance, fatigue, or a confusional state that improves with resolution of the bradycardia.
They're suggesting that "bradycardia" should be reserved for the simple meaning of a "slower than normal resting heart rate" <60 beats per minute, and "bradyarrhythmia" should be used only when some evidence of pathology is present. An athlete with a naturally slow heart rate due to their level of physical fitness could then be said to have "bradycardia" but not a "bradyarrhythmia".
Why mention this opinion at the beginning of their paper? I think the best explanation is that the authors see the terms used interchangeably (especially implied assumptions that slow heart rate == pathology) and are looking to separate them better.
answered May 10, 2021 at 23:41
