Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) is a common and serious arrhythmia that, with appropriate treatment and monitoring, most patients can manage and reduce the risk of serious complications, such as stroke.
Atrial fibrillation is a condition in which the normal pacing of the heart is abolished and the atria contract chaotically, that is, they vibrate at a very high frequency (up to 400-600 times per minute), but the heart fails to produce a normal rhythm or perform normal contractions. This causes disruption of normal cardiac function and reduces its efficiency in pumping blood throughout the body. This condition is created by the very rapid electrical activity of the heart.
What causes atrial fibrillation
Cardiac causes: It can be caused by coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy, high blood pressure, valvular diseases. Hereditary predisposition to the development of atrial fibrillation or which increases with age.
Other diseases: Hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, inflammatory diseases, diabetes mellitus, obesity.
Lifestyle: Excessive alcohol or caffeine consumption, intense physical or mental stress.
Symptoms and diagnosis of atrial fibrillation
In some people, atrial fibrillation may not cause symptoms. However, it usually causes these and they are:
- rapid heartbeat or skipped beats
- fatigue, dizziness,
- dyspnea
- in severe cases, heart failure or stroke.
If you experience any of the above symptoms, you should immediately visit a Cardiologist. Atrial fibrillation has a treatment to restore the normal heart rhythm, to treat the causes that cause it, mainly to reduce the risk of a sudden stroke.
The Cardiologist, to diagnose atrial fibrillation, performs the following tests:
- Medical and hereditary history, auscultation of the heart Electrocardiogram which will show an irregular and very fast heart rate without a clear P wave, which is characteristic of atrial fibrillation.
- Echocardiogram to assess the condition of the heart valves and other cardiac problems.
- Holter heart rate for 24-hour recording of the heart rhythm over a longer period of time, if the atrial fibrillation is transient.
The treatment of atrial fibrillation is pharmacological with anticoagulants, antiarrhythmic drugs and B-blockers or calcium antagonists.
There are cases where medication is ineffective. Then electrical resynchronization of the heart can be performed to restore it to its normal rhythm. In some cases, electroanatomical mapping and ablation with high-frequency current of the arrhythmogenic foci (ablation) may be required.
In cases where the patient does not respond to other treatments, the Doctor explores with the patient the possibility of performing a percutaneous or surgical intervention to treat heart failure.
