 
|
MediFocus Guides Help Answer Key Questions about Atrial Fibrillation:
 |
What are the standard treatments for Atrial Fibrillation?
|
|
What are your treatment options?
|
|
Are there any promising new and effective treatments on the horizon?
|
|
Where can you find the doctors, hospitals, and medical centers with specialized interest and expertise in Atrial Fibrillation?
|
|
Which organizations and support groups can help you cope more effectively with Atrial Fibrillation?
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Medifocus Guidebook:
Atrial Fibrillation
Updated: July 13, 2008
- Comprehensive overview of
Atrial Fibrillation
- Explore your treatment options
- Learn about new developments
- Read medical journal abstracts
- Find doctors, hospitals, research centers
|
|
Introduction
Atrial refers to the heart's two upper chambers, the left and right atria. The two lower chambers are called the ventricles. Fibrillating means quivering, or rapid beating.
Irregular, rapid beating of the atrial chambers characterizes Atrial Fibrillation. This happens when the normal system that conducts electricity in the atria malfunctions. A storm of electrical activity across both atria causes them to fibrillate 300 to 600 times per minute.
The ventricles pick up only a small number of these impulses, but the ventricular rate can approach 180 or higher. Whether Atrial Fibrillation happens at high or low heart rates, its irregular rhythm means the ventricles can't pump blood efficiently to the rest of the body. Instead, blood pools in the heart and the body doesn't get enough.
This can result in a varying symptoms from relatively mild ones, such as fatigue and cough, to serious ones, such as angina and stroke. Atrial Fibrillation causes more than 70,000 strokes each year in the U.S., where 160,000 new cases of Atrial Fibrillation are diagnosed each year. Atrial Fibrillation's likelihood increases with age.
Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation requires medication and, often, surgery. A variety of procedures are available. The most common initial step is Cardioversion - restoration of the heart's normal rhythm - accomplished either with medicine or electrically (direct-current cardioversion).
Atrial Fibrillation can manifest several ways. Older people typically get Chronic Atrial Fibrillation. Excess adrenaline - often during a "fight or flight" situation - causes Adrenergic Atrial Fibrillation. Neurogenic Atrial Fibrillation stems from an imbalance in the nervous system's regulation of the heart. Men between 30 and 50 are subject to Vagal Atrial Fibrillation after a meal or at rest. Young people can be affected by lone or primary Atrial Fibrillation, which presents no identifiable cause; Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation, which causes intermittent attacks of variable length; and rare familial Atrial Fibrillation.
The MediFocus Guidebook on Atrial Fibrillation contains information that is vital to anyone who has been diagnosed with this condition.
You will learn about the causes, risk factors, common signs and symptoms, medical tests that are used to establish the diagnosis, and standard treatments. You will also learn about the latest clinical advances in the management of Atrial Fibrillation as well as about the newest treatment options that are available.
The MediFocus Guidebook on Atrial Fibrillation will also inform you about important new, exciting research in the area of Atrial Fibrillation. You will also learn about the doctors, hospitals, and medical centers that are at the leading edge in conducting clinical research about Atrial Fibrillation.
Information about clinical trials, quality of life issues, a list of questions to ask your doctor, and a useful directory of organizations and support groups that can help patients with Atrial Fibrillation complete this valuable Guidebook.
You won't find this combination of information anywhere else. It is easily accessible right here. We invite you to preview the MediFocus Guidebook on Atrial Fibrillation so that you can decide if this comprehensive, trustworthy information may help you or someone you care about who has been diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation.
|
|
