Question

A critically ill 4-year-old child is in the pediatric intensive care unit. Telemetry monitoring reveals junctional tachycardia. Identify where this arrhythmia originates.

a) Atria
b) Atrioventricular (AV) node
c) Ventricles
d) Bundle of His

Answer 1

Junctional tachycardia in a critically ill 4-year-old child originates from the atrioventricular (AV) node, which regulates the electrical impulses between the atria and ventricles of the heart.

Step-by-step explanation:

The telemetry monitoring of a 4-year-old child revealing junctional tachycardia indicates that the arrhythmia originates from the atrioventricular (AV) node. The AV node is an area of specialized tissue between the atria and the ventricles that acts as a gatekeeper to regulate the electrical impulses passing from the atria to the ventricles. Consequently, it is responsible for maintaining a delay in impulse transmission, ensuring that ventricular filling is complete before contraction. When the AV node becomes the source of an arrhythmia, it can generate heartbeats at an abnormally high rate, thereby causing junctional tachycardia.