Cardio terms?

what are the practical differences between atrial fibrillation, vetricular fibrillation (obviously fib in 2 diff locations, but what are they indicative of, which is more serious, etc?), tachycardia, sinus bradycardia etc. When can a defibrillator be used?

Thanks Gary, you're info was exactly what I was looking for. And no, bio guy, you weren't doing my homework. I watch a lot of medical shows and wanted to know the difference between all of the terms I hear. I tried googling but the answers i found were either super-simplistic or uber-technical

The 2 chambers at the top of the heart are called Atria, these pump blood into the ventricles. When the pumping action gets out of whack, these chambers can quiver and not pump blood properly this is called Atrial Fibrillation. This can happen at anytime in a persons life, it is an electrical abnormality in the heart, sometimes a person with heart disease can get this. A defibrillator can be used to correct this problem, but they usually try medication first. If they use a defibrillator to correct this it is actually synchronized with your heart beat, so the shock from the defibrillator fires at the correct time to fix the problem.
The 2 lower chambers are the ventricles and these pump blood to the body. These can go into a fibrillation pattern but it is a lethal rhythm. This is corrected by using a defibrillator that is not synchronized with the heart. This will happen during a heart attack.
Tachycardia is a rapid heart rate any thing over 100 to 150 is tachycardia. A heart rate over 150 is usually called SVT and can be fixed with medications or a defibrillator just like atrial fibrillation, the defibrillator has to be in synchronized mode.
Bradycardia is a slow heart rate less than 60 and is usually treated with medications.

what are we doing your home work. Look it up

Ventricular fibrillation is deadly, people live with atrial fibrillation all the time. A defibrillator can be used with any fibrillation, and with SVT with a timed defibrillation at times, depending on the situation.
Not sure what you're looking for with the tachycardia and sinus bradycardia....

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