Atrial fibrillation can be a very serious condition which affects how the dissimilar chambers, which make up the heart, all work together. Fortunately, the condition may be mild and the sick person may not suffer from any symptoms or if they have them, they are so mild that they do not create any day-to-day condition issues while for less-mild cases, the condition can be controlled with medication or the use of catheters. In more serious instances where the symptoms are significantly affecting enjoyment of life or less-interventionist treatments have failed or cause undesirable symptoms themselves, then open-heart surgical operation may be essential and desirable to strict the condition. Atrial fibrillation can lead to death so it is foremost to understand what the condition is and how it can be treated.
First of all, let's look at how a healthy heart works.
Symptoms Of Atrial Fibrilation
Picture the heart as two sets of twin chambers sitting on top of each other. The larger chambers are at the top and the smaller chambers are at the bottom - the upper chambers are known as atria (atrium singular) and the lower ones are ventricles. An atrium receives blood into the heart and it has the job of pushing blood into the smaller ventricles which in turn, powerfully ageement to expel the blood from the heart and nearby the body. The lower ventricles will ageement no matter what is happening with the heart's electrical theory but the atrium needs a trigger or pacemaker, to tell it when it has to contract. The electrical signals coordinate the two sets of chambers so the atria are not attempting to force blood into the ventricles when they are not ready to receive it.
Atrial fibrillation is where the electrical signals which are generated by the heart's natural pacemaker, short circuit and fail to trigger the contractions of the upper chambers of the heart properly. These are atria which is where the "atrial" term comes in - "fibrillation" is a medical term for "fluttering", where the heart contracts in an irregular and ineffective manner. Because the electrical signal is bypassing the atrium it fibrillates and does not ageement when it is supposed to nor effectively when it does. This interrupts the blood supply into the ventricles and subsequently nearby the body.
The symptoms for atrial fibrillation are similar to those for a rapid heart rate - palpitations, intolerance for practice and on occasion, angina as well as shortness of breath. It is not unusual for atrial fibrillation to be diagnosed only after a cardiac event or a stroke and this makes it more foremost for quarterly screenings to be conducted to check for the condition before it becomes a more serious medical issue. Patients with a history of stroke, hypertension, diabetes, rheumatic fever and other cardiac events are all indicators of higher risk categories for susceptibility to atrial fibrillation.
Medical intervention to deal with atrial fibrillation provides a high level of success rate, with many patients bringing the condition under operate without the need for surgery. In those cases where surgical operation is required, success rates are in excess of 80% for the procedure though a pacemaker be need to be fitted.
The Basics of Atrial Fibrillation