The curious case of a man who reached 600 beats per minute and survived to tell about it

AT 2012a man with paralysis of the lower extremities was hospitalized University Hospital of Massachusetts stricken chest pain and dizziness. Tests showed that he both tachycardia and arrhythmia. That is, his heart was beating faster than normal and with an irregular rhythm. For this reason, he was hospitalized while he underwent treatment to normalize his heartbeat. During the reception, he had several new episodes, in one of which he broke all known records, reaching speed 600 beats per minute.

Given that it is believed that the maximum in the human heart normal They are 300 beats per minute, it is clear that this person has broken more than a record. In fact, to this day, there is no such case in the scientific literature. Yes, there was a previously published study of a man reaching 480 beats per minute, but no more than that. The above cases have not been reported.

Despite reaching the mouse heart rate, the human 57 years old and with a heart historyHe lived to tell the story. Actually, just 20 seconds later he returned to a normal heart rate, becoming a mystery to his physicians. And the fact is that at that time there were some theories about his condition, but it was never completely clear what happened to him.

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The previous record for heart rate published in a scientific study was 480 beats per minute. However, there is another one that has reached a little higher, at 500. It has not been published in the scientific literature, but it was very media due to the circumstances under which it occurred.

We are talking about a Dane who in 1989 died in a cinema while watching a movie. A fish named Wanda. Looks like it’s been standing for so long laughing out loud that his heart rate remained stable at 250 to 500 beats per minute until he died of atrial fibrillation. You can literally say that he died laughing.

The case was so extreme that one of the film’s writers decided to use the story as a statement about how funny the film was. However, he eventually realized that it was in bad taste and decided not to advertise it.

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What happened to the man who reached 600 beats per minute?

The beats used by the heart to pump blood throughout the body are regulated action potentials. This is the mechanism by which an electrical discharge passes through cell membranes, causing the transmission of various signals. To do this, the cells must ion channelsalong which calcium, sodium and potassium ions move, creating a charge difference, as if it were a battery.

In the case of the heart, each action potential is followed by something known as reflection period. That is, the period during which another action potential cannot be produced. Thus, preventing further beats, the heart cannot beat too fast. As a rule, the refractory period in the atrioventricular junction lasts 0.2 seconds. Just like the action potential itself, which occurs in cells cardiac muscle. Thus, the largest heart should not beat more than 300 beats per minute. However, it may happen that the electric current of the action potential takes a different path than usual. Or that the refractory period is shorter than usual. In these cases, the number of beats per minute may increase.

Finally, after checking that his heart rate had returned to normal, he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. That is, an irregular heartbeat in which the atria and ventricles do not contract and expand in sync. This type of phenomenon increases the likelihood of clots and can give Stroke. No more chance to see the man who died watching A fish named Wanda.

Luckily this time atrial fibrillation was very short and there were no consequences to regret. Of course, the reasons are not clear, although it is likely that the man, who already had heart problems, had abnormalities in the cardiac leads. In other words, there will be failures in his electrical conduction system. That was the conclusion, although given the nature of the case, it’s impossible to know for sure.