A member asked:
Any ideas why pulmonary embolism causes increased heart rate?
A doctor has provided 1 answer
Nerves and reflexes: Pulmonary embolism causes obstruction to blood flow and oxygenation. This causes fight or flight reactions, fear, etc, and the hormones released cause tachycardia. The stretch on the right side of the heart also causes the release of bnp causing also tachycardia. The stretch on the right side of the heart allows many mechanisms including reentry and may even cause irreg hr.
Answered 1/19/2014
4.6k views
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