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| Irregularly Irregular Rhythm (Health Term) msg list | ID: 903 |
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| ECG appearance |
monkeymagic - 11/2/2007 12:51 |
The term is commonly used when describing the regularity of the cardiac arrhythmia ATRIAL fibrillation, as opposed to ARTERIAL fibrillation which doesn't exist (probably just a typo).
Atrial fibrillation is caused by chaotic electrical impulses generated by cells in the atria (top two chambers of the heart). These impulses then attempt to channel into the venticles (bottom two chambers of the heart), however every erratic impulse cannot be conducted and so the ventricles respond at random intervals which creates an irregular heart beat. Sometimes the rhythm is sporadically irregular and very irregular, it is these times that the term "irregularly irregular" is used.
As such it can't be a true oxymoron, however I prefer to use the term relatively irregular.
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