Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of heart failure by 11 per 1000, kidney problems by 6 per 1000, death by 4 per 1000, stroke by 3 per 1000, and coronary heart disease by 1 per 1000. Women have a worse outcome overall than men. Evidence increasingly suggests that atrial fibrillation is independently associated with a higher risk of developing dementia.

Knowledge that TdP may occur in patients taking certain prescription drugs has been both a major liability and reason for retirement of these medications from the marketplace. Examples of compounds linked to clinical observations of TdP include amiodarone, fluoroquinolones, methadone, lithium, chloroquine, erythromycin, amphetamine, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, methylphenidate, and phenothiazines. It has also been shown as a side effect of certain anti-arrhythmic medications, such as sotalol, procainamide, and quinidine. The gastrokinetic drug cisapride (Propulsid) was withdrawn from the US market in 2000 after it was linked to deaths caused by long QT syndrome-induced torsades de pointes. In many cases, this effect can be directly linked to QT prolongation mediated predominantly by inhibition of the hERG channel.

In September 2011 (subsequently updated in March 2012 and February 2013), the FDA issued a warning concerning increased incidence of QT prolongation in patients prescribed doses of the antidepressant Celexa (citalopram) above 40 mg per day, considered the maximum allowable dosage, thereby increasing the risk of Torsades. However, a study, "Evaluation of the FDA Warning Against Prescribing Citalopram at Doses Exceeding 40 mg," reported no increased risk of abnormal arrhythmias, thus questioning the validity of the FDA's warning.

The following is a list of factors associated with an increased tendency towards developing torsades de pointes:

- Hypokalemia (low blood potassium)

- Hypomagnesemia (low blood magnesium)

- Hypocalcemia (low blood calcium)

- Bradycardia (slow heartbeat)

- Heart failure

- Left ventricular hypertrophy

- Hypothermia

- Subarachnoid hemorrhage

- Hypothyroidism

The following stimulants, conditions and triggers may increase your risk of the more frequent occurrence of premature ventricular contractions:

- Caffeine, tobacco and alcohol

- Exercise

- High blood pressure (hypertension)

- Anxiety

- Underlying heart disease, including congenital heart disease, coronary artery disease, heart attack, heart failure and a weakened heart muscle (cardiomyopathy)

- African American ethnicity- increased the risk of PVCs by 30% in comparison with the risk in white individuals

- Male sex

- Lower serum magnesium or potassium levels

- Faster sinus rates

- A bundle-branch block on 12-lead ECG

- Hypomagnesemia

- Hypokalemia

Premature ventricular contractions can occur in a healthy person of any age, but are more prevalent in the elderly and in men. They frequently occur spontaneously with no known cause. Heart rate turbulence (HRT) is a phenomenon representing the return to equilibrium of the heart rate after a PVC. HRT parameters correlate significantly with mortality after myocardial infarction (heart attack). Some possible causes of PVCs include:

- Adrenaline excess;

- High blood calcium;

- Cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic or dilated;

- Certain medicines such as digoxin, which increases heart contraction or tricyclic antidepressants

- Chemical (electrolyte) problems in the blood;

- Contact with Carina (trachea/bronchi) when performing medical suctioning stimulates vagus nerve

- Drugs such as:

- Alcohol;

- Caffeine;

- Cocaine

- Theobromine;

- Myocardial infarction;

- Hypercapnia (CO poisoning);

- Hypokalemia—low blood levels of potassium

- Hypomagnesaemia—low blood levels of magnesium

- Hypoxia;

- Ischemia;

- Lack of sleep/exhaustion;

- Magnesium and potassium deficiency;

- Mitral valve prolapse;

- Myocardial contusion;

- Myocarditis;

- Sarcoidosis;

- Smoking

- Stress;

- Thyroid problems;

Risk factors for long QT syndrome include the following:

- female sex

- increasing age

- liver or renal impairment

- family history of congenital long QT syndrome

- pre-existing cardiovascular disease

- electrolyte imbalance: especially hypokalemia, hypocalcemia, hypomagnesemia

- concurrent administration of interacting drugs

Anorexia nervosa has been associated with sudden death, possibly due to QT prolongation. It can lead a person to have dangerous electrolyte imbalances, leading to acquired long QT syndrome and can in turn result in sudden cardiac death. This can develop over a prolonged period of time, and the risk is further heightened when feeding resumes after a period of abstaining from consumption. Care must be taken under such circumstances to avoid complications of refeeding syndrome.

A family history of AF may increase the risk of AF. A study of more than 2,200 people found an increased risk factor for AF of 1.85 for those that had at least one parent with AF. Various genetic mutations may be responsible.

Four types of genetic disorder are associated with atrial fibrillation:

- Familial AF as a monogenic disease

- Familial AF presenting in the setting of another inherited cardiac disease (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, familial amyloidosis)

- Inherited arrhythmic syndromes (congenital long QT syndrome, short QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome)

- Non-familial AF associated with genetic backgrounds (polymorphism in the ACE gene) that may predispose to atrial fibrillation

Studies have shown that patients with Pacemaker syndrome and/or with sick sinus syndrome are at higher risk of developing fatal complications that calls for the patients to be carefully monitored in the ICU. Complications include atrial fibrillation, thrombo-embolic events, and heart failure.

The risk for untreated LQTS patients having events (syncopes or cardiac arrest) can be predicted from their genotype (LQT1-8), gender, and corrected QT interval.

- High risk (> 50%) - QTc > 500 ms, LQT1, LQT2, and LQT3 (males)

- Intermediate risk (30-50%) - QTc > 500 ms, LQT3 (females) or QTc < 500 ms, LQT2 (females) and LQT3

- Low risk (< 30%) - QTc < 500 ms, LQT1 and LQT2 (males)

A 1992 study reported that mortality for symptomatic, untreated patients was 20% within the first year and 50% within the first 10 years after the initial syncope.

Symptoms are typically precipitated ("triggered") by exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmias during periods of physical activity or acute emotional stress.

Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the industrialised world. It exacts a significant mortality with approximately 70,000 to 90,000 sudden cardiac deaths each year in the United Kingdom, and survival rates are only 2%. The majority of these deaths are due to ventricular fibrillation secondary to myocardial infarction, or "heart attack". During ventricular fibrillation, cardiac output drops to zero, and, unless remedied promptly, death usually ensues within minutes.

It can result in many abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias), including sinus arrest, sinus node exit block, sinus bradycardia, and other types of bradycardia (slow heart rate).

Sick sinus syndrome may also be associated with tachycardias (fast heart rate) such as atrial tachycardia (PAT) and atrial fibrillation. Tachycardias that occur with sick sinus syndrome are characterized by a long pause after the tachycardia. Sick sinus syndrome is also associated with azygos continuation of interrupted inferior vena cava.

Sinus tachycardia is usually a response to normal physiological situations, such as exercise and an increased sympathetic tone with increased catecholamine release—stress, fright, flight, anger. Other causes include:

- Pain

- Fever

- Anxiety

- Dehydration

- Malignant hyperthermia

- Hypovolemia with hypotension and shock

- Anemia

- Heart failure

- Hyperthyroidism

- Mercury poisoning

- Kawasaki disease

- Pheochromocytoma

- Sepsis

- Pulmonary embolism

- Acute coronary ischemia and myocardial infarction

- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

- Hypoxia

- Intake of stimulants such as caffeine, theophylline, nicotine, cocaine, or amphetamines

- Hyperdynamic circulation

- Electric shock

- Drug withdrawal

- Porphyria

- Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy

- Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

The true incidence of TIC is unclear. Some studies have noted the incidence of TIC in adults with irregular heart rhythms to range from 8% to 34%. Other studies of patients with atrial fibrillation and left ventricular dysfunction estimate that 25-50% of these study participants have some degree of TIC. TIC has been reported in all age groups.

The cause is poorly understood. However several risk factors are associated with pacemaker syndrome.

Rearrest may reduce the likelihood of survival when compared to patients who have had just one episode of cardiac arrest. Overall resuscitation rates have been estimated to be about 34%, however survival to hospital discharge rates are as low as 7%. This phenomenon may be contributed to rearrest.

A recent study by Salcido et al. (2010) ascertained rearrest in all initial and rearrest rhythms treated by any level of Emergency Medical Service (EMS), finding a rearrest rate of 36% and a lower but not significantly different rate of survival to hospital discharge in cases with rearrest compared to those without rearrest.

Sick sinus syndrome is a relatively uncommon syndrome in the young and middle age population. Sick sinus syndrome is more common in elderly adults, where the cause is often a non-specific, scar-like degeneration of the cardiac conduction system. Cardiac surgery, especially to the atria, is a common cause of sick sinus syndrome in children.

The number of people affected by Brugada ECG is higher in Asia than in the United States and Europe. Specifically, Brugada Type 1 ECG appears more frequently in Asia (0%–0.36% of the population) and Europe (0%–0.25%) than in the United States (0.03%). Type 2 and Type 3 ECG is more prevalent in Asia (0.12%–2.23%) than in Europe (0.0%–0.6%) or the United States (0.02%).

It is the most common cause of sudden death in young men without known underlying cardiac disease in Thailand and Laos.

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), also called familial polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (FPVT) or catecholamine-induced polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, is a disorder characterized by an abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia). Thought to affect as many as one in ten thousand people, it is estimated to cause 15% of all unexplained sudden cardiac deaths in young people.

First recognized in 1975, this condition is due to mutations in genes encoding a calcium channel or proteins related to this channel. All mutated proteins participate in the regulation of calcium ion flow in and out of the sarcoplasmatic reticulum of cardiac cells. Therefore, reduced electrical stability of cardiomyocytes may cause the heart to enter a life-threatening state of ventricular arrhythmia as response to the natural release of catecholamines from nerve endings on the heart muscle and from the adrenal glands into the circulation. This rhythm disturbance prevents the heart from pumping blood appropriately. Ventricular tachycardia may self-terminate or degenerate into ventricular fibrillation, causing sudden death unless immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation is applied.

These possible causes are remembered as the 6 Hs and the 6 Ts. See Hs and Ts

- Hypovolemia

- Hypoxia

- Hydrogen ions (Acidosis)

- Hyperkalemia or Hypokalemia

- Hypoglycemia

- Hypothermia

- Tablets or Toxins (Drug overdose)

- Cardiac Tamponade

- Tension pneumothorax

- Thrombosis (e.g., myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism)

- Tachycardia

- Trauma (e.g., hypovolemia from blood loss)

This list is not fully comprehensive. Most notably, it does not include anaphylaxis. Pressure effects associated with artificial ventilation may also contribute to significant reduction in cardiac output, resulting in a clinical diagnosis of PEA.

The possible mechanisms by which the above conditions can cause pulseless in PEA or the same as those recognized as producing circulatory shock states. These are (1) impairment of cardiac filling, (2) impaired pumping effectiveness of the heart, (3) circulatory obstruction and (4) pathological vasodilation causing loss of vascular resistance and excess capacitance. More than one mechanism may be involved in any given case.

Possible underlying causes, which may be treatable and reversible in certain cases, include the Hs and Ts.

- Hypovolemia

- Hypoxia

- Hydrogen ions (acidosis)

- Hypothermia

- Hyperkalemia or Hypokalemia

- Hypoglycemia

- Tablets or Toxins (drug overdose)

- Electric shock

- Tachycardia

- Cardiac Tamponade

- Tension pneumothorax

- Thrombosis (myocardial infarction or pulmonary embolism)

- Trauma (hypovolemia from blood loss)

While the heart is asystolic, there is no blood flow to the brain unless CPR or internal cardiac massage (when the chest is opened and the heart is manually compressed) is performed, and even then it is a small amount. After many emergency treatments have been applied but the heart is still unresponsive, it is time to consider pronouncing the patient dead. Even in the rare case that a rhythm reappears, if asystole has persisted for fifteen minutes or more, the brain will have been deprived of oxygen long enough to cause brain death.

Some causes of tachycardia include:

- Adrenergic storm

- Alcohol

- Amphetamine

- Anaemia

- Antiarrhythmic agents

- Anxiety

- Atrial fibrillation

- Atrial flutter

- Atrial tachycardia

- AV nodal reentrant tachycardia

- Brugada syndrome

- Caffeine

- Cocaine

- Exercise

- Fear

- Fever

- Hypoglycemia

- Hypovolemia

- Hyperthyroidism

- Hyperventilation

- Infection

- Junctional tachycardia

- Methamphetamine

- Multifocal atrial tachycardia

- Nicotine

- Pacemaker mediated

- Pain

- Pheochromocytoma

- Sinus tachycardia

- Tricyclic antidepressants

- Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome

Pulseless electrical activity leads to a loss of cardiac output, and the blood supply to the brain is interrupted. As a result, PEA is usually noticed when a person loses consciousness and stops breathing spontaneously. This is confirmed by examining the airway for obstruction, observing the chest for respiratory movement, and feeling the pulse (usually at the carotid artery) for a period of 10 seconds.

Paroxysmal tachycardia is a form of tachycardia which begins and ends in an acute (or paroxysmal) manner.

It is also known as "Bouveret-Hoffmann syndrome".