What is the difference between ventricular fibrillation and atrial fibrillation?
The human heart has two upper chambers and two lower chambers. The upper chambers are called the left atrium and the right atrium – the plural of atrium is atria. The two lower chambers are the left ventricle and the right ventricle. When the two upper chambers – the atria – contract at an excessively high rate, and in an irregular way, the patient has atrial fibrillation. When the two lower chambers beat irregularly and flutter, the patient has ventricular fibrillation. Put simply – atrial fibrillation refers to the two upper heart chambers while ventricular fibrillation refers to the two lower heart chambers; in either case there abnormally irregular rhythm. Ventricular fibrillation is more serious than atrial fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation frequently results in loss of consciousness and death, because ventricular arrhythmias are more likely to interrupt the pumping of blood, or undermine the heart’s ability to supply the body with oxygen-rich blood. Sudden cardiac death (SCD
