Final answer:
The potential etiology of maternal cardiac arrest encompasses factors like cardiovascular diseases, complications during pregnancy, and individual health conditions. Atherosclerosis can lead to diseases that increase the risk of heart attacks, which may in turn lead to cardiac arrest. Abnormalities in various cardiac cycle phases can cause arrhythmias, which could trigger cardiac arrest.
Step-by-step explanation:
The potential etiology of maternal cardiac arrest includes various factors such as cardiovascular diseases, complications during pregnancy, and underlying health conditions. Cardiac arrest is a grave medical condition where the heart ceases to pump blood effectively, which can be precipitated by myocardial infarction (MI), also known as a heart attack, though the two are not synonymous. Risk factors that can contribute to a heart attack, and potentially lead to cardiac arrest, include atherosclerosis, hypertension, smoking, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and lack of physical exercise. Atherosclerosis is a specific condition that can lead to cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease and peripheral artery disease, by narrowing the arteries due to plaque buildup, thereby impairing blood flow and increasing the risk of cardiac events.
Regarding the terms provided (atrial depolarization, ventricular repolarization, ventricular depolarization, atrial repolarization), they are not direct etiologies of cardiac arrest but are phases of the cardiac cycle. Abnormalities in these phases can indeed lead to arrhythmias, which may precipitate cardiac arrest.