Comments on: what is atrial fibrillation and is it serious?

By: dr sangani

dr sangani — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:16:59 +0000

atrial fibrillation is serious

get a 2-D echo of your heart done at the earliest

and get the diagnosis of the cause of atrial fibrillation
References :
i am a cardiac surgery resident

By: Dr Frank

Dr Frank — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:07:59 +0000

AF is a failure of the normal controlling node (SA node) located in the posterior wall of the right atrium. Atrial fibrillation is by far the most commonly occurring cardiac arrhythmia. The rate heart control by the node is lost and the rate can rise dramatically.

It is unfortunately not a benign condition however there are a number of ways of dealing with it. You may remember Tony Blair had surgical management while he was Prime minister. This consists of destroying the aberrant conduction pathway, allowing the SA to take over control once more.

Patients can also be cardioverted, given a DC shock just as in when a defibrillator is used following a cardiac arrest.

Digoxin was used for many many years to control Af it fell out of fashion, but is still used by many cardiologists.

Another approach is to again ignore the abnormal rhythm and just control the rate, this is done using beta blockers.

The rapid irregular rhythm allows some blood to stagnate,increasing clot risk and stroke, for this reason patients are given at least anti-platelet therapy and more recently anti-coagulated with warfarin.
References :
GP for more years than I care to remember

By: gangadharan nair

gangadharan nair — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:42:59 +0000

Atrial fibrillation is a rapid, irregularly irregular atrial rhythm. Symptoms include palpitations and sometimes weakness, dyspnea, and presyncope. Atrial thrombi often form, causing a significant risk of embolic stroke. Diagnosis is by ECG. Treatment involves rate control with drugs, prevention of thromboembolism with anticoagulation, and sometimes conversion to sinus rhythm by drugs or cardioversion.
The disorder is usually controllable with treatment. Many people with atrial fibrillation do very well.
Atrial fibrillation tends to become a chronic condition, however. It may come back even wtih treatment.
Possible Complications:-
* Fainting (syncope), if atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter cause the pulse to be too quick or slow
* Heart failure
* Stroke, if clots break off and travel to the brain (drugs that thin the blood such as heparin and warfarin can reduce the risk)
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_fibrillation
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000184.htm
http://www.medicinenet.com/atrial_fibrillation/article.htm
http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec07/ch075/ch075e.html#sec07-ch075-ch075e-1110

By: brenyboy

brenyboy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:18:59 +0000

oh you hit it bad, too bad for you, i really hope that things get better for you, the aspirin does a great job in reducing the risk, dont worry, that is the worst thing that you can do, put your heart and body under more stress then it needs to be! so dont stress about it, just focus on the positives and live your life and any other day. Atrial Fibrilation, its just simply a irregular heart rhythm, just undertake the tests and hope for the postitives ok! It is generally not life threatening, the only problem is your stroke rate increases up to 5 times, due to pooling of blood in the upper atrium from the irregular heart rhythm, but its highly unlikely so don’t worry about it! i really hope you get better, and if you dont understand something my love, please ask your doctor when you see him, or the med proffessional that is next/with you, thats his/her job!
Good luck and take care! oh and how did you get Dextrocardia, thats having your heart on the right side of your body, that is extremly rare my love, you are a very rare person
References :
studying the heart for 2 years