Atrial Fibrillation Research Paper

This case study discusses the management of a 68 year old male who presented with chest palpitations secondary to rapid atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is a common cardiac arrhythmia with serious complications if not treated correctly. This essay will discuss the initial clinical presentation of the patient and examine the management and outcome of the interventions applied. The significance of atrial fibrillation including its pathophysiology and aetiology will also be discussed.

Most physicians and people who acquired the problem usually know it as A-FIB, a shorter term for atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation deals with the cardiovascular system, in particular, the heart in the body. It is defined as, “the electrical signals that control this system are off-kilter. Instead of working together the atria do their own thing, causing fast fluttering heartbeat, also known as arrhythmia” (WEBMD). In a normal pumping blood of the heart the atria would squeeze first, followed by the ventricles of the heart. A-fib can be a serious issue if not treated, due to the inadequate pumping of the blood, causing a higher chance of heart failure. It is also a higher chance in getting a stroke, because improper flow of the blood can cause clots in the

Atril fibrillation, also known as Afib, causes problems with the heart's electrical impulse system resulting in an Afib irregular heartbeat. The most common type of heartbeat problem, Afib affects 2.2 million people in the United States.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a cardiac arrhythmia. It is the most common arrhythmia and it has implications for patients and anaesthetists alike. The anaesthetist must take into consideration the physiological and pharmacological implications of this common arrhythmia.

Atrial fibrillation can cause significant discomfort (particularly if one has a lot of symptoms) and this may reduce one’s ability to exercise and do daily activities which may affect one’s life. Alternative, atrial fibrillation may not affect one’s day-to-day life. Atrial fibrillation is associated with a decrease in the heart’s ability to pump blood (it can result in the development of heart failure), which can affect one’s quality of life, increase the likelihood of being admitted to hospital and reduce one’s life expectancy. Atrial fibrillation itself does not pose a direct and immediate risk of death and many patients live with the arrhythmia for decades. However, atrial fibrillation can lead to serious complications. These possible complications

Atrial Fibrillation is one of the leading causes of death across the globe. (1) AF increases an individual’s risk of stroke by 4 to 6 times on average. (2)(3) The risk increases with age, in people older than 80 years old; AF is the straight cause of 1 in 4 strokes. (3) Even though Atrial Fibrillation can be considered a mild arrhythmia; it is still associated with serious morbidity and mortality. (4)(5) First, it raises the risk of having thromboembolism and stroke, due to blood stasis in the left atrium. Stroke is commonly caused by a thrombus or clot. In patients with AF, the thrombus or clot is usually comes from the left atrial appendage (a small sac in the left upper chamber of the heart). Because stroke in AF patients may be particularly distressing, it is quite important to identify patients who are possibly at high risk before it occurs to them. Second, the irregularly irregular heart beat can cause symptoms palpitations, shortness of breath, anxiety and reduced exercise tolerance in the patient, so it requires medical consideration. Third, Atrial Fibrillation causes a lot of cardiac and hemodynamic changes including decreased myocardial systolic function and cardiomyopathy caused by tachycardia. (6)(7) Sometimes AF is identified only with the onset of a stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA or "mini-stroke"). (8) Whether if it is asymptomatic or symptomatic, AF is a progressive disease, worsening with time and it is accounting for

Today millions of Americans live or have lived with Atrial fibrillation. The main concern with this health issue is that many people who lived with it sometimes are not aware of it. Atrial fibrillation is defined by Mayo Clinic (2012) as “an irregular and often rapid heart rate that commonly causes poor blood flow to the body”. It occurs when the four chambers of the heart have a disrupted rhythm. The abnormal functionality of health may lead to a stroke because of the possible blood clot that will be formed. The Atrial fibrillation or Afib put the body in a situation without oxygen and nutrients because the body is not well supplied by a heart that is became weak. In general, only few people will feel change in their heartbeat. They may verbalize

The usage of anticoagulant therapy is one of the most common forms of medical intervention. The CHADS2 score is the simplest and most commonly used stroke- risk assessment tool since its implementation 2001. This scale is used to determine whether or not anticoagulation therapy is required for patients with episodic atrial fib. A higher CHADS2 score is directly related to a greater risk of stroke. The level of risk from a thrombotic event is determined by a score which is tallied by including five common stroke risk factors; congestive heart failure, hypertension, age, diabetes, and history of stroke. If a patient is positive for any of these risk factors they receive one point with the history of stroke getting 2 points (Camm et al, 2010).

A heart which is beating normal makes two sounds, "lubb" when the valves between the atria and ventricles close, and "dupp" when the valves between the ventricles and the major arteries close. A heart murmur is a series of vibratory sounds made by turbulent blood flow. The sounds are longer than normal heart sounds and can be heard between the normal sounds of the heart.

The episodes of atrial fibrillation can come and go or remain permanently and cannot usually be corrected without surgical intervention. This could be caused by hypertension,

The Hospital from the University of Pennsylvania wrote a very intriguing article over Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation. The article holds a very ample amount of information about what atrial fibrillation is, who effected, symptoms, treatment, complications and how to care for the patient afterwards. I personally have found this article to be extremely informative and through this review I will be briefly share this information.

Bleeding is one of warfarins most serious and harmful effects as major and fatal bleeding can be experienced by patients. A meta analysis of 33 studies concluded “The clinical impact of anticoagulant-related major bleeding in patients with venous thromboembolism is considerable” therefore the effects of bleeding should be taken into account by health care professionals when choosing whether to prescribe warfarin to a patient or to continue anti-coagulant therapy using warfarin in individual patients. In addition to bleeding another complication of warfarin is its narrow therapeutic index which makes it difficult to ensure patients stay within the required anticoagulation range. An analysis of 6454 patients taking warfarin for atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation is a common problem, with over 2 million people affected in the United States. Atrial fibrillation causes substantial morbidity and mortality, with an increased risk of ischemic stroke. Thus, it is important to recognize the risk factors associated with the disease to prevent it from occurring. In this review, being overweight and obese is positively correlated with increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation in both men and women. This review suggests that the excess risk of atrial fibrillation associated with obesity may be caused by the left atrial remodeling and enlargement caused by the excess adipose tissue, hemodynamic overload, and adipokines inflammatory response. This data raises the possibility that interventions to promote normal weight may reduce the burden of atrial fibrillation in the current and future population. A few of the recognized risk factors for atrial fibrillation are male sex, increasing age, hypertension, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, and heart valve disease (13). It has been known for more than 75 years that a critical mass of atrial tissue is necessary for atrial fibrillation to occur and left atrial enlargement is also an important precursor of atrial fibrillation (3). Several studies have shown that BMI is one of the most powerful determinants of the left atrial size needed for developing atrial fibrillation (3), so getting BMI lowered by exercise and a good diet should be of high priority

My father is an atrial fibrillation patient and had a surgery for it in February but a clot was found in his heart before the surgery, so his surgery was being delayed. He was given blood thinners and medications to remove the clot. I was very scared at that time because I was being told that this clot could also cause a brain stroke. My mother had a spinal surgery in 2014 and has problems with mobility. She also gets injections in her eyes due to diabetes. My parents are dependent on me for all their household jobs and their hospital/GP appointments. I tried to manage my family circumstances with studies but I have failed. My dad had a stone in gall bladder and a bag was connected to him for bile drainage. He could not go through his gall

This stagnant blood forms clots that break off and inter the circulation. Atrial Fibrillation is a factor in about 15% of Embolism stroke.The risk of a stroke from atrial fibrillation can be dramatically reduced with daily use of anticoagulant medication.