Tachycardia - Definition

Definition

The upper threshold of a normal human heart rate is based upon age. Tachycardia for different age groups is as listed below:

  • 1–2 days: >159 beats per minute (bpm)
  • 3–6 days: >166 - bpm
  • 1–3 weeks: >182 - bpm
  • 1–2 months: >179 - bpm
  • 3–5 months: >186 - bpm
  • 6–11 months: >169 - bpm
  • 1–2 years: >151 - bpm
  • 3–4 years: >137 - bpm
  • 5–7 years: >133 - bpm
  • 8–11 years: >130 - bpm
  • 12–15 years: >119 - bpm
  • >15 years – adult: >100 - bpm

When the heart beats excessively rapidly, the heart pumps less efficiently and provides less blood flow to the rest of the body, including the heart itself. The increased heart rate also leads to increased work and oxygen demand by the heart, which can lead to rate related ischemia.

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