A Common Heart Problem That's Easy to Miss - Yahoo News

In A-fib, the atria, the two upper chambers of the heart, beat rapidly and chaotically out of sync with the ventricles, the heart’s lower pumping chambers that are responsible for circulating blood throughout the body.

The lifetime risk of developing A-fib is greater than 20 percent, yet many people don’t even know they have it.

A-fib is also associated with dementia, likely the result of strokes and impaired circulation to the brain caused by the abnormal heart rhythm.

In some people with A-fib, the abnormal rhythms come and go, while in others, they persist and the heart is unable to restore a normal rhythm without treatment.

Your doctor can do an EKG or a treadmill heart test, or you may wear a portable monitor for several weeks to look for abnormal heart rhythms, to confirm a diagnosis of A-fib.

If A-fib is confirmed, your doctor may try to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm using a procedure called electrical cardioversion, in which an electrical current is applied to the chest using paddles.

Longer term, most patients with A-fib can be effectively and safely treated with medication, usually drugs called beta blockers and calcium blockers that help the heart sustain a normal rhythm.

He was doing well on medication for seven years until May, when a routine checkup revealed that, unbeknown to him, his A-fib had recurred and his heart was beating 165 times a minute, about double the normal rate.

A medication change and two shocks to try to restore a normal heart rhythm helped only briefly, and Mr.

In one recent study of 203 patients, ablation successfully prevented A-fib a year later in about 75 percent of patients in one group, whereas drug therapy helped only 45 percent of the patients in the other.

Stevenson of Vanderbilt said some patients with persistent A-fib prefer to undergo ablation rather than continually taking medications, which can cause bleeding problems or other side effects.

In the first few months after ablation, he said, about half of patients experience abnormal heart rhythms and may require a cardiac shock or drug treatment until the heart fully recovers from the procedure.