Aiming for a healthy weight to reduce the severity and number of episodes. Rate control is important because it allows the ventricles enough time to fill with blood completely. With this approach, the abnormal heart rhythm continues, but you may feel better and have fewer symptoms. Beta blockers are usually taken by mouth, but they may be delivered through a tube in an emergency situation. If the dose is too high, it can cause the heart to beat too slowly.
These medicines can also make COPD and arrhythmia worse. Blood thinners to prevent blood clots and lower the risk of stroke. These medicines include edoxaban, dabigatran, warfarin, heparin, and clopidogrel. You may not need to take blood thinners if you are not at risk of a stroke. Blood-thinning medicines carry a risk of bleeding. Other side effects include indigestion and heart attack.
They include diltiazem and verapamil. Digitalis, or digoxin , to control the rate blood is pumped throughout the body. It should be used with caution, as its use can lead to other arrhythmias.
Other heart rhythm medicines to slow a heart that is beating too fast or change an abnormal heart rhythm to a normal, steady rhythm. Rhythm control is an approach recommended for people who continue to have symptoms or otherwise are not getting better with rate control medicines. Rhythm control also may be used for people who have only recently started having atrial fibrillation or for highly physically active people and athletes.
These medicines may be used alone or in combination with electrical cardioversion. Or your doctor may prescribe some of these medicines for you to take as needed when you feel symptoms of atrial fibrillation.
Some heart rhythm medicines can make arrhythmia worse. Other side effects include effects on the liver, lung, and other organs, low blood pressure, and indigestion. Procedures or surgery. Catheter ablation to destroy the tissue that is causing the arrhythmia.
Ablation is not always successful and in rare cases may lead to serious complications, such as stroke. The risk that atrial fibrillation will reoccur is highest in the first few weeks after the procedure.
If this happens, your doctor may repeat the procedure. In some cases, your doctor will place a pacemaker at the time of the procedure to make sure your heart beats correctly once the tissue causing problems is destroyed. Electrical cardioversion to restore your heart rhythm using low-energy shocks to your heart. This may be done in an emergency or if medicines have not worked.
Pacemaker to reduce atrial fibrillation when it is triggered by a slow heartbeat. Typically, a pacemaker is used to treat atrial fibrillation only when it is diagnosed along with another arrhythmia. For example, if you are diagnosed with a slow heart rate or sick sinus syndrome, a pacemaker implanted for that condition can also prevent atrial fibrillation. If you have surgery for a pacemaker, you will need to take blood-thinning medicines.
Plugging, closing, or cutting off the left atrial appendage to prevent clots from forming in the area and causing a stroke, if you cannot take blood thinners. Your doctor may do this at the same time as surgical ablation.
It can be difficult to close off the appendage entirely, and leaking can contribute to ongoing clotting risk. Surgical ablation to destroy heart tissue generating faulty electrical signals. The surgeon usually does surgical ablation at the same time as surgery to repair heart valves, but in some cases, surgical ablation can be done on its own. Living With will explain what your doctor may recommend, including lifelong lifestyle changes and medical care to prevent your condition from recurring, getting worse, or causing complications.
Research for Your Health will explain how we are using current research and advancing research to treat people with atrial fibrillation.
Participate in NHLBI Clinical Trials will discuss our open and enrolling clinical studies that are investigating treatments for atrial fibrillation. Living With - Atrial Fibrillation. Receive routine follow-up care. Keep all your medical appointments. Bring a list of all the medicines you are taking to every doctor and emergency room visit. This will help your doctor know exactly what medicines you are taking. Take your medicines as prescribed.
Tell your doctor if your medicines are causing side effects, if your symptoms are getting worse, or if you have new symptoms. Ask your doctor about physical activity, weight control, and alcohol use. Find out what steps you can take to manage your condition. If you use illegal drugs, ask your doctor for help stopping. Check with your doctor before taking over-the-counter medicines, nutritional supplements, or cold and allergy medicines.
Some of these products can trigger rapid heart rhythms or interact poorly with other medicines. In addition, medicines to treat arrhythmia can make the effect of blood thinners stronger. If you have had an ablation, your doctor will want to see you regularly for three months to check on the healing process, to check for the reappearance of atrial fibrillation events, and to make adjustments to blood thinning medicines as needed.
You will continue to take blood thinners for several months and maybe much longer. Report any lasting pain—for example, at the site of the incision—or any other signs of a complication.
Your doctor will want to see you at least once a year after the initial follow-up period. If you are taking warfarin, it is important to monitor the dose by measuring how quickly your blood clots. Your doctor will do blood tests every week at first, then monthly once the level has stabilized. You may be able to do this yourself at home. You will need to avoid certain other medicines and watch what you eat. Some foods, such as leafy green vegetables, may interfere with warfarin.
Monitor your condition. Electrocardiogram EKG. Regular EKG monitoring can help your doctor detect a repeat atrial fibrillation event or assess your response to changes in dose or medicine, or to ending treatment with medicines. Your doctor may record an EKG during your regular visits or recommend a portable monitor. A band that can record a second EKG has also been approved by the U. Food and Drug Administration. Stress tests or a six-minute walking test can help your doctor see whether your medicine prevents atrial fibrillation while you are doing typical everyday activities.
Blood tests to check the effect of certain heart rhythm medicines on your thyroid, kidneys, or liver. The blood thinner warfarin also requires regular testing to make sure the dose is correct. In some cases, your doctor may talk to you about devices available for monitoring your blood thinning medicines at home.
Blood thinners can be stopped or adjusted if you are going into surgery. Prevent repeat atrial fibrillation. To help prevent a repeat episode of atrial fibrillation, your doctor may recommend the following: Medicine that you can take at home as needed to correct your heart rhythm. Before giving you this medicine, the doctor will ask you to take a dose and try to trigger an event to see if the medicine prevents it effectively.
You can take this medicine if you start feeling symptoms of atrial fibrillation. Treatment for an underlying condition, such as sleep apnea, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Heart-healthy lifestyle changes, including aiming for a healthy weight.
Combining weight loss with physical activity and the management of other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, alcohol use, and smoking, can improve symptoms more than weight loss alone. Learn the warning signs of serious complications and have a plan.
If you suspect any of the following in you or someone else, call right away: Bleeding in the brain, digestive system, or urinary tract. This can happen if you take a dose of blood-thinning medicines that is too high. Signs and symptoms may include bright red vomit; bright red blood in your stool or black, tarry stools; blood in your urine; severe pain in the abdomen or head; sudden, severe changes in your vision or ability to move your arms or legs; or memory loss.
A lot of bleeding after a fall or injury, or easy bruising or bleeding, may mean that your blood is too thin. Excessive bleeding is bleeding that will not stop after you apply pressure to a wound for 10 minutes.
Call your doctor right away if you have any of these signs. Signs of heart attack include mild or severe chest pain or discomfort in the center of the chest or upper abdomen that lasts for more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back.
It can feel like pressure, squeezing, fullness, heartburn, or indigestion. There may also be pain down the left arm. Women may also have chest pain and pain down the left arm, but they are more likely to have less typical symptoms, such as shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, unusual tiredness, and pain in the back, shoulders, or jaw. Read more about the signs and symptoms of a heart attack.
If you think someone may be having a stroke, act F. Does one side of the face droop? A—Arms: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
S—Speech: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is their speech slurred or strange? T—Time: If you observe any of these signs , call immediately. Every minute matters. Read more about the signs and symptoms of a stroke. Usually, the first sign of sudden cardiac arrest is fainting. At the same time, no heartbeat can be felt. Some people may have a racing heartbeat or feel dizzy or light-headed just before they faint.
Within an hour before cardiac arrest, some people have chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, or vomiting. Call right away if someone has signs or symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest.
Look for a defibrillator nearby and follow the instructions. Research for Your Health. Improving health with current research. The Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network CTSN is an international network that studies heart valve disease, arrhythmias, heart failure, coronary heart disease, and the complications of surgery.
CTSN researchers have studied the success of treatments for people with atrial fibrillation who need heart valve surgery and compared rate control and rhythm control as a first treatment after surgery. Uncovering Disparities in Atrial Fibrillation Outcomes. ARIC researchers also showed that African-American participants in an atrial fibrillation study tended to have higher rates of heart complications—including stroke, heart failure, and coronary heart disease—even though white participants were more likely to develop atrial fibrillation.
African Americans with atrial fibrillation were also twice as likely as whites to die prematurely. Investigating the Genetic Basis of Atrial Fibrillation. Understanding the genetics involved may help researchers develop new treatments for atrial fibrillation and identify people who would benefit most from screening and prevention strategies. Testing Varied Approaches to Treatment.
Read Surgery no better than medication at preventing serious complications of atrial fibrillation for more information. The Framingham Heart Study established a link between atrial fibrillation and risk factors such as obesity, age, diabetes, and heart disease.
The study also documented the link between atrial fibrillation and its health outcomes and found that risk for atrial fibrillation can be inherited. The study found that the top number in a blood pressure reading— systolic blood pressure—better predicted which women would develop atrial fibrillation than the bottom, or diastolic , number.
Identifying Characteristics of Atrial Fibrillation in Women. In addition, physical activity was linked to a lower risk of atrial fibrillation, compared with women who did not exercise.
Read more. Comparing effectiveness of treatment options. The findings helped shape professional guidance that prioritizes rate control as a primary approach. Identifying risk factors for atrial fibrillation among older patients. The goal of the Cardiovascular Health Study CHS is to identify risk factors for cardiovascular disease related to the onset of coronary heart disease and stroke in adults age 65 or older.
Many CHS papers have evaluated measures of risk factors in early cardiovascular disease for later onset of atrial fibrillation. The CHS also has documented the incidence of, risk factors for, and health consequences of atrial fibrillation. When the left atrium is larger than normal, a person is at higher risk for developing atrial fibrillation. Drawing attention to new approaches to prevention. The NHLBI helped spur activity on the topic of atrial fibrillation prevention by organizing a panel of experts who identified recommendations to move research forward.
Examining ways to manage atrial fibrillation in cases of surgery. Researchers in an NHLBI-funded study collected evidence suggesting that blood thinners are not needed during surgery among patients with atrial fibrillation and may cause more harm than good. In the study, the scientists showed that heart patients who stopped taking the blood thinner warfarin prior to surgery did not have an increased risk of stroke and had a lower risk of bleeding, compared with patients who received a bridge treatment using another blood thinner.
The finding helps resolve inconsistent practice guidelines that affect an estimated , surgery patients each year who are using warfarin for atrial fibrillation. Read less. Advancing research for improved health. We perform research. Our Division of Intramural Research DIR and Cardiovascular Branch conduct research on diseases that affect the heart and blood vessels, including atrial fibrillation.
We fund research. Strokes happen when blood flow to the brain is blocked by a blood clot or by fatty deposits called plaque in the blood vessel lining. More than , hospitalizations with AFib as the primary diagnosis happen each year in the United States.
Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Heart Disease. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Atrial Fibrillation. Minus Related Pages. What is atrial fibrillation? Secular trends in incidence of atrial fibrillation in Olmsted County, Minnesota, to , and implications on the projections for future prevalence external icon. Estimates of current and future incidence and prevalence of atrial fibrillation in the U.
Am J Cardiol. Holter Monitor — a portable ECG you wear continuously for one to seven days to record your heart rhythms over time. Event Monitor — a portable ECG you wear for one or two months, which records only when triggered by an abnormal heart rhythm or when you manually activate it. Implantable Monitor — a tiny event monitor inserted under your skin, worn for several years to record events that only seldom take place.
Some people with atrial fibrillation will return to normal rhythm without treatment. Otherwise, the first focus of treatment is to find and treat the underlying cause. If the cause is thyrotoxicosis, treatment may consist of medications or surgery. For most patients no specific reversible cause can be identified.
Medications to slow the heart rate including the following classes of medications:. Medications to prevent blood clots , called anticoagulants or blood thinners. The most important risk of atrial fibrillation is the development of a stroke, which can be lethal. Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of stroke fivefold. Many patients with atrial fibrillation, especially those over the age of 65, require lifelong anticoagulation to prevent strokes and prolong life.
Catheter ablation , to address the most common trigger for atrial fibrillation: cells in the pulmonary veins that produce their own electrical signal. This type of ablation creates a ring of scar tissue where the veins enter the heart, blocking electrical signals from the veins. Left atrial appendage closure procedure , for patients who are unable to take blood thinners because of bleeding risks.
Maze procedure , in which heart muscle is cut in strategic places to create a "maze" of scar tissue that prevents electrical signals from passing through.
Learn more about the minimally invasive maze procedure at Johns Hopkins, also known as minimally invasive radiofrequency ablation. Cardioversion , in which the heart is carefully shocked into rhythm while the person is under anesthesia.
0コメント