Atrial fibrillation

One of the most common arrhythmias in humans -atrial fibrillation. Its prevalence is 0.5% of the total population. The prognostic value of this disease is also great. The presence of atrial fibrillation increases the mortality of patients in half, compared to people who do not have conduction disorders. The predominant age of people who suffer from a constant form of this disease is the elderly. Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is more common in young adults.

There are two forms of the disease: paroxysmal and persistent. At the first kind of illness attacks of an arrhythmia are stopped independently or by means of medicamental therapy. Treatment of this form of the disease is aimed at achieving and subsequent maintenance of the normal heart rate. Persistent atrial fibrillation may be a recurrence of a previously emerging pathology or a first-fixed arrhythmia. It lasts seven days, and is stopped by medications.

Causes

Atrial fibrillation occurs in the backgrounddiseases of the cardiovascular system. The most frequent diseases leading to the development of this arrhythmia include ischemic heart disease (50-60% of patients), arterial hypertension (40-50%), coronary artery bypass graft (5%), acute myocardial infarction. Often, fibrillation occurs in people who abuse alcohol. In this case, alcoholic cardiomyopathy develops, which provokes arrhythmia. Infectious diseases and disturbances of water-electrolyte metabolism also contribute to the onset of the disease.

The mechanism of development

Atrial fibrillation occurs with impairedwork of the left atrium of the heart. In some parts of the myocardium, specific changes occur in the conduct of electrical impulses, which triggers this type of arrhythmia. During an attack of fibrillation, all electrical processes are disorganized (asynchronous, chaotic, inferior excitation of cardiac muscle fibers). In a minute, up to 700 pulses are formed, which cover small groups of fibers, which prevents normal systolic contraction. Only part of the impulses are carried on the myocardium. However, tachycardia develops, which is combined with arrhythmia.

Symptoms

Atrial fibrillation is characterized by the followingsymptoms: a feeling of irregularities and palpitations, discomfort or pain in the heart, weakness, dizziness, heaviness in the chest, dyspnea, which occurs even in rest, fatigue that lasts for a long time.

In some cases, the disease is characterized bystunted clinical picture. In this case, patients do not experience characteristic interruptions in cardiac activity, with a low incidence of heartbeat, overall well-being may not be disturbed. However, without appropriate treatment, this kind of arrhythmia can be accompanied by the development of complications. These include: heart failure, impaired cerebral circulation, which leads to stroke, intestinal infarction. It has been proved that the preservation of fibrillation for many years leads to a decrease in intellectual activity. Therefore, diagnostic methods become important, the most important of which is the electrocardiogram. There are characteristic changes in this arrhythmia: the absence of a P wave in front of the QRS complex, instead of them pathological waves f are found which have a different size, shape. Their duration reaches 700 per minute. The cardiologist, with the detection of such changes, can confidently put this diagnosis.