My ideas on how pressure works
* Warning: I am not a professional, this is just a speculation based on info found online *
While looking up about commotio cordis, I learned that mechanical stress on cardiac muscle causes it to discharge an electrical signal, disrupting the electrical activity of the heart.
I thought that since pressure is causing mechanical stress on the heart, the reason why pressure causes irregular heartbeats follows a similar principle.
Irregular beats can be divided into two categories, and I will speculate why pressure causes each type of irregular beat.
These are caused by abnormal electrical signals from the atrium. Pressure disrupts blood flow in the heart. And I think because the walls of the atria are thin, disruptions in blood flow can cause abnormal stretching of the atria walls, causing them to release abnormal electrical signals. These cause atrial ectopic beats, such as PACs, and if you’re lucky, SVT.
2. Ventricular ectopic beat
These are caused by abnormal electrical signals coming from the ventricles. Normally I don’t get much of these with light pressure, so I think that you need heavy pressure to create the sufficient mechanical stress to make the ventricles misfire. This causes PVCs and VT.
I also think that by controlling the amount and location of pressure, you can control what kind of irregular heartbeat you get. With light pressure near the base of the heart, to screw with blood flow, you get PACs and SVT. With heavy pressure on the ventricles(near the apex), you get PVCs and VT.
These are just my thoughts on how pressure works. This may be totally wrong, so don’t take it too seriously.
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