A patient has a heart rate of 136 beats per minute. Which of the following is NOT a potential cause?

A patient has a heart rate of 136 beats per minute. Which of the following is NOT a potential cause?

• A. Hypovolemia
• B. Pain
• C. Anxiety
• D. Increased ICP

Answer: (D)

When the heart rate is 136, you’re dealing with tachycardia, a state where the body’s sympathetic system is driving the heart faster to maintain perfusion. Hypovolemia lowers circulating blood volume, so the body compensates by increasing heart rate to preserve cardiac output. Pain triggers a sympathetic surge that raises heart rate, and anxiety does the same through catecholamine release. Increased intracranial pressure, on the other hand, commonly triggers the Cushing reflex, which typically produces hypertension with a slower heart rate (bradycardia), not tachycardia. So the factor least likely to cause a fast heart rate is increased intracranial pressure.

When the heart rate is 136, you’re dealing with tachycardia, a state where the body’s sympathetic system is driving the heart faster to maintain perfusion. Hypovolemia lowers circulating blood volume, so the body compensates by increasing heart rate to preserve cardiac output. Pain triggers a sympathetic surge that raises heart rate, and anxiety does the same through catecholamine release. Increased intracranial pressure, on the other hand, commonly triggers the Cushing reflex, which typically produces hypertension with a slower heart rate (bradycardia), not tachycardia. So the factor least likely to cause a fast heart rate is increased intracranial pressure.