Atrial fibrillation of the heart: description, causes, symptoms, danger and treatment

What is it

Normal work of the heart muscle is atrial and ventricular contraction in the correct sequence .With violations, the heart begins to contract in the wrong rhythm, so the medical name for this phenomenon is arrhythmia.

Most often, people have this type of disease, like atrial fibrillation. In this case, the heart muscle disappears phase, which cuts the atrium .Instead of contractions there are twitchings or "flicker", which affects the work of the ventricles.

Prevalence

The disease has been known for a long time, and according to statistics, violation of heart rhythms place every two-hundredth visitor to a polyclinic.

Often atrial fibrillation( MA) appears as a consequence and complication of IHD or hypertension.

MA includes both atrial flutter and fibrillation.

Various studies of this disease have been conducted in the United Kingdom and the United States, which show that this disease occurs in 0,4 - 0,9% of the adult population .

The attack of MA in the beginning is usually pronounced, then relapses begin( periodic ejection of blood into the aorta).

Classification, differences of species, stages

The disease has 3 stages:

• Terminates without any treatment .It does not pose a particular danger and has a favorable outlook.
• It does not stop on its own .Heart rhythm is restored due to medication or physiotherapeutic effects.
• Constant .There is a need to constantly monitor the work of the heart in order to avoid thromboembolism.

Atrial fibrillation of the heart can be paroxysmal( paroxysmal) and permanent( prolonged), treatment of both forms is similar.

Why the risk arises in young and elderly people

Most often, this heart muscle disease occurs as a result of its rheumatic affections, as well as obesity or diabetes( sugar), myocardial infarction( find out what it is and what are the consequences), alcohol damage.

Affects the heart muscle and the intake of various medicines, smoking, strong psycho-emotional stress, frequent use of drinks with caffeine - coffee, strong tea, energy.

Operations carried over to the heart, congenital heart defects can also be attributed to risk factors.

The majority of episodes of AI disease occur in the elderly patient - is older than 75 years old .Not everyone can accurately determine the cause of this disease.

Heart pathology is one of the most common causes. Often this disease occurs if the patient has ever been diagnosed with a disease or a thyroid gland.

Risk Factor in young people are bad habits. The use of alcohol in unlimited quantities and smoking greatly increase the likelihood of contracting AI.

Symptoms and signs of an attack

How does an arrhythmia manifest? It depends on the form of the disease, as well as the peculiarities of the human psyche and the general state of the myocardium.

To , the initial signs of of this heart disease include periodic dyspnoea, which does not stop after sports, frequent palpitations, pain or other unpleasant sensations. All this arises in the form of seizures.

Not all people go into chronic form. Seizures may begin and occasionally recur throughout the life of .In some patients, 2 or 3 attacks of atrial fibrillation are already in a chronic form. Sometimes the disease is detected only after a thorough medical examination.

Learn more about this disease from a useful video:

Diagnosis

To diagnose a cardiac muscle condition correctly, you perform such a diagnosis: the patient is offered to perform any physical exercise, then the procedure uses the ECG procedure.

If the form is bradisystolic, then when the muscles are stressed, the rhythm is greatly accelerated. Differential diagnosis is often performed with sinus tachycardia.

Symptoms of atrial fibrillation on the ECG:

First and immediate help with paroxysm

To avoid attacks, should remember to take prescribed medications , which soothe the heart rhythm.

The first thing you can do to help yourself or others during an attack of atrial fibrillation is to call the an ambulance .If this happens often in your person, carry tablets prescribed by your doctor. Usually it is valerian tablets, validol or volokardin.

If the place is crowded, then ask others if they have any medications. If the pressure drops sharply, the lungs begin to swell, and a shock occurs.

What can I do, tactics of therapy, drugs

How to treat atrial fibrillation? First of all, it depends on the form of the disease. Treatment of atrial fibrillation of the heart is medicated and surgical( operative).

The main goal is to restore and maintain the sinus rhythm of , to control the frequency of cardiac contractions and to avoid thromboembolic complications after the disease.

One of the most effective means is the introduction of a novaxainamide into the vein or inside , as well as cordarone or quinidine .

The propanorm is also prescribed, but before that, you should monitor blood pressure and monitor the electrocardiogram.

There are less effective medications. These include most often anaprilin, digoxin or verapamil .They help to get rid of shortness of breath and weakness in the body and frequent heartbeats.

On how to conduct electrical cardioversion with atrial fibrillation, you can look at the video( in English):

If MA lasts more than two days, the patient is prescribed warfarin .This drug prevents the development of thromboembolic complications in the future.

The most is the main thing - to treat the underlying disease , which led to a violation of the heart rhythm.

There is another method that eliminates atrial fibrillation in a radical way. This is the isolation of the pulmonary veins by the radio frequency method .In 60% of cases the method helps.

Sometimes traditional methods of treatment help. These include reception of decoction of hawthorn and valerian .

Rehabilitation

When the arrhythmia attacks are removed, the heart is adjusted and the patient is released home, it is necessary to undergo rehabilitation, which includes a complete package of preventive measures .

The first thing you should pay attention to atrial fibrillation is regulation of the food system and diet retention. You should try to minimize the intake of saturated fats, for example, butter, and also salt.

A patient with a heart needs products that contain a lot of potassium , and salt is an antagonist.

You need to include in your daily diet not only bananas, which contain a lot of potassium, but also products such as baked potatoes, dried apricots, blueberries, apricots.

To reduce the negative impact of transferred respiratory arrhythmia, should be taken into account for breathing .Difficult breathing worsens the general condition, as a result of which the body is fed up with carbon dioxide. To normalize the respiratory vessels, you should try to breathe through the Buteyko system.

How to breathe correctly on the Buteyko system, learn from the video:

Correct breathing avoids the vascular spasms of and is a remarkable prevention of atrial fibrillation. Many patients are well assisted in the quality of rehabilitation wellness walking.

Life expectancy, complications and consequences

Most complications occur as a result of patients not following the full prescription of doctors and starting to be treated chaotically, at their discretion.