Q24.6: Congenital heart block
The electrical pulses in your heart are not sent from the upper heart chambers (atria) to the lower heart chambers (ventricles) as normal. This condition is congenital, which means you were born with it.
The heart pumps blood through the body. Inside the heart are 4 chambers. There are 2 heart atria and 2 ventricles. Both heart atria and both ventricles are separated from each other by a partition. The heart's electrical activity causes the heart muscle to contract. It begins at a site in your right atrium. Initially the electrical activity spreads to both atria. The electrical activity then flows on via a sort of cable to the ventricles.
If the electrical pulses of the heart are not sent from the atria to the ventricles as normal, this may cause the heartbeat to drop out every now and then. In this case, the heart may not pump enough blood through the body. This sometimes causes dizziness.
Additional indicator
On medical documents, the ICD code is often appended by letters that indicate the diagnostic certainty or the affected side of the body.
- G: Confirmed diagnosis
- V: Tentative diagnosis
- Z: Condition after
- A: Excluded diagnosis
- L: Left
- R: Right
- B: Both sides
Further information
Source
Provided by the non-profit organization “Was hab’ ich?” gemeinnützige GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG).