Complications & Prognosis of Atrial Fibrillation

Blood Clots and Embolism
•Atria don’t contract normally and more blood often gets left behind instead of being pumped into the ventricle

•Blood starts to pool inside the atria, and this trigger the formation of unwanted clots (thrombosis)

•The clots can break off, pass through ventricles, travel through blood vessels and become stuck at narrow points, decreasing or obstructing blood flows (embolism)

•Any tissue that receives less or no blood supply would then be damaged due to lack of oxygen (ischaemia and infarction would occur)

•When a clot becomes lodged in the blood vessels of lungs and blocks blood flow, pulmonary embolism occurs (pulmonary infarction would happen)

Stroke

•blood clot travels to the brain and causes the sudden onset of one-sided paralysis of the extremities and/or the facial muscles (an embolic stroke)

•Brain cells die when there’s no longer oxygen and nutrients supplied to them (ischaemic stroke)

Congestive heart failure and edema

•Persistent or frequent periods of atrial fibrillation that last for a few months or longer can cause the walls of the heart chambers to become stretched out, and/or the walls become thicker and become stiff eventually.

•Like a rubber band, stretched out chambers start to lose their ability to contract efficiently, causing the heart to be weak.

•heart can no longer pump enough blood to meet your body's needs, and fluid become backed up in several places (congestive heart failure)

•The feet, legs, and abdomen can all become swollen from excess fluid (edema). This fluid can also accumulate in the lungs (pulmonary edema), making it harder to breathe.

Respiratory failure

•Pulmonary edema makes breathing more difficult and reduces the ability of the lung to add oxygen to and remove carbon dioxide from the blood (due to reduced gaseous exchange)

•The levels of oxygen in the blood can drop, and the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood can rise (respiratory failure)

Development Of Alzheimer's Disease

•A link was found between atrial fibrillation and Alzheimer's disease in May 2009 by Researchers at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. It was found out that:

Patients with atrial fibrillation were 44 percent more likely to develop dementia than patients without the heart disorder.

Younger patients with atrial fibrillation were at higher risk of developing all types of dementia, particularly Alzheimer's. Atrial fibrillation patients under age 70 were 130 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's

Patients who have both atrial fibrillation and dementia were 61 percent more likely to die during the study period than dementia patients without the rhythm problem.

Younger atrial fibrillation patients with dementia may be at higher risk of death than older AF patients with dementia

Prognosis

•The rate of ischemic stroke among patients with nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation averages 5% year, which is somewhere between 2-7 times the rate of stroke in patients without atrial fibrillation.

•The total mortality rate is approximately doubled in patients with atrial fibrillation compared with patients in normal sinus rhythm and is linked with the severity of underlying heart disease.

•People who have AF can live normal, active lives. For some people, treatment can cure AF and restore normal heart rhythms.

•Atrial fibrillation tends to become a chronic condition, however. It may come back even wtih treatment.

•For people who have permanent AF, treatment can successfully control symptoms and prevent complications.