Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies
Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
UPDATED on 8/5/2013
In atrial fibrillation, the instant an ischemic stroke hits
CHOKEHOLD
Ischemic strokes choke the brain by inhibiting the transport of oxygen,1 often leading to permanent neurologic injury or death in just a matter of minutes2-4
Ischemic strokes are the most common type of AFib-related stroke5 and can be extremely debilitating.6,7 It’s important to help your patients understand the risk of ischemic stroke and how you can help lower that risk.
Nearly 9 out of 10 AFib-related strokes are ischemic, and most are cardioembolic5,8,9
- Cardioembolic strokes are most commonly caused by AFib9,10
- Hemorrhagic strokes account for approximately 10% of AFib-related strokes5
- AFib-related ischemic strokes are primarily caused by an embolus formed in the left atrial appendage of the heart11
Ischemic strokes can be devastating, often resulting in irreversible brain damage2
- Debilitating effects of a stroke include paralysis, slurred speech, and memory loss12
- Severely disabling stroke is frequently rated by patients as equivalent to or worse than death13
Strokes are a leading cause of disability in the US14
The good news is you can significantly reduce your AFib patients’ risk of ischemic stroke with anticoagulation therapy.11,15,16 By keeping them appropriately anticoagulated, you can help your patients avoid the devastation of ischemic stroke.11
AFib=atrial fibrillation.
References
- Types of stroke. Johns Hopkins Medicine Web site. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/printv.aspx?d=85,P00813. Accessed August 9, 2012.
- Maas MB, Safdieh JE. Ischemic stroke: pathophysiology and principles of localization. Hospital Physician Neurology Board Review Manual. 2009;13:1-16.http://www.turner-white.com/pdf/brm_Neur_V13P1.pdf. Accessed February 1, 2013.
- Rosamond WD, Folsom AR, Chambless LE, et al. Stroke incidence and survival among middle-aged adults: 9-year follow-up of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort. Stroke. 1999;30:736-743.
- Saver JL. Time is brain—quantified. Stroke. 2006;37:263-266.
- Mercaldi CJ, Ciarametaro M, Hahn B, et al. Cost efficiency of anticoagulation with warfarin to prevent stroke in Medicare beneficiaries with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Stroke. 2011;42:112-118.
- Vemmos KN, Tsivgoulis G, Spengos K, et al. Anticoagulation influences long-term outcome in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation and severe ischemic stroke. Am J Geriatr Pharmacother. 2004;2:265-273.
- Lin HJ, Wolf PA, Kelly-Hayes M, et al. Stroke severity in atrial fibrillation. The Framingham Study. Stroke. 1996;27:1760-1764.
- Grau AJ, Weimar C, Buggle F, et al. Risk factors, outcome, and treatment in subtypes of ischemic stroke: the German Stroke Data Bank. Stroke. 2001;32:2559-2566.
- Bogousslavsky J, Van Melle G, Regli F, Kappenberger L. Pathogenesis of anterior circulation stroke in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation: the Lausanne Stroke Registry. Neurology. 1990;40:1046-1050.
- Freeman WD, Aguilar MI. Prevention of cardioembolic stroke. Neurotherapeutics. 2011;8:488-502.
- Fuster V, Rydén LE, Cannom DS, et al. ACC/AHA/ESC 2006 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Atrial Fibrillation—executive summary: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines and the European Society of Cardiology Committee for Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the 2001 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Atrial Fibrillation): developed in collaboration with the European Heart Rhythm Association and the Heart Rhythm Society. Circulation. 2006;114:700-752.
- Effects of stroke. American Stroke Association Web site. http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/AboutStroke/EffectsofStroke/Effects-of-Stroke_UCM_308534_SubHomePage.jsp. Accessed December 8, 2012.
- Gage BF, Cardinalli AB, Owens DK. The effect of stroke and stroke prophylaxis with aspirin or warfarin on quality of life. Arch Intern Med. 1996;156:1829-1836.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Prevalence of Stroke—United States, 2006-2010. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2012;61:379-382.
- Singer DE, Chang Y, Fang MC, et al. The net clinical benefit of warfarin anticoagulation in atrial fibrillation. Ann Intern Med. 2009;151:297-305.
- Lip GYH, Andreotti F, Fauchier L, et al. Bleeding risk assessment and management in atrial fibrillation patients: a position document from the European Heart Rhythm Association, endorsed by the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Thrombosis. Europace. 2011;13:723-746.
SOURCE
Straightforward, informed answers to your most important questions about living
with atrial fibrillation – the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia.
Written by
Hugh G. Calkins, M.D., Director of the Arrhythmia Service
and Electrophysiology Lab at The Johns Hopkins Hospital,
and Ronald Berger, M.D.,
If you’ve ever run up a flight of stairs, chased a tennis ball across the court, or reacted in fright at a scary movie, you know what a pounding heart feels like…
But for the 2.3 million Americans who suffer from atrial fibrillation (AF or AFib), a racing heart is a way of life. Simple tasks like getting out of bed in the morning or rising from a chair can cause dizziness, weakness, shortness of breath, or heart palpitations. For these people, AF severely impairs quality of life – and even when symptoms stemming from AF are mild, the disorder can seriously impact health, increasing the risk of stroke and heart failure.
AF can be a debilitating even deadly condition. Fortunately, it can be successfully managed – but there are various approaches for treating AF or preventing a recurrence. How do you and your doctor choose which approach is right for you?
If you or a loved one has AF, there are so many questions: Do I need an anticoagulant… should I be taking medication to control my heart rate… will my symptoms respond to cardioversion… if I need an antiarrhythmic drug to control AF episodes, which one should I take… when is an ablation procedure appropriate… and more.
It’s critically important to learn everything you can now — so you can partner with your doctor effectively, ask the right questions, and understand the answers.
To help you, we asked two eminent experts at Johns Hopkins to share their expertise and hands-on experience with arrhythmia patients in an important new report, Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies.
Dr. Hugh Calkins and Dr. Ronald Berger are ideally positioned to help you understand and manage your AF. Together with their colleagues at Johns Hopkins, they perform approximately 2,000 electrophysiology procedures and 200 pulmonary vein isolation procedures for atrial fibrillation each year.
Hugh Calkins, M.D. is the Nicholas J. Fortuin, M.D. Professor of Cardiology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Director of the Arrhythmia Service, the Electrophysiology Lab, and the Tilt Table Diagnostic Lab at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has clinical and research interests in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias with catheter ablation, the role of device therapy for treating ventricular arrhythmias, the evaluation and management of syncope, and the study of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.
Ronald Berger, M.D., Ph.D., a Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins, is Director of the Electrophysiology Fellowship Program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He serves on the editorial board for two major journals in the cardiovascular field and has written and coauthored more than 100 articles and book chapters.
Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies is now available to you in a digital PDF download and print version.
“I feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest…”
An arrhythmia is an abnormality in the timing or pattern of the heartbeat, causing the heart to beat too rapidly, too slowly, or irregularly. Sounds pretty straightforward, but there’s a lot we don’t know about why the heart rhythm goes awry… or the best way to treat it.
In Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies, we focus on what we DO know. In page after page of this comprehensive report, we address your most serious concerns about living with AF, such as:
- I don’t have any symptoms. Is my problem definitely AF?
- Can drinking alcohol trigger or worsen AF?
- Is every person who has AF at risk for a stroke?
- If my doctor suspects AF, will I have to wear an implantable or event monitor to be sure?
- Why does AF often show up later in life?
- What would you recommend to the older patient – 75 and older – who has AF but no bothersome symptoms?
- What do you recommend for the person with longstanding persistent AF?
- Is the AF experienced by an otherwise healthy person different from that of a person with underlying heart disease or other health issues?
- What are the differences among: paroxysmal AF, persistent AF, and longstanding persistent AF?
- What is the “pill-in-the-pocket” approach to AF?
Anticoagulation Therapy: What You Should Know
While AF is generally not life threatening, for some patients it can increase the likelihood of blood clots forming in the heart. And if a clot travels to the brain, a stroke will result. Anticoagulation therapy is used to prevent blood clot formation in people with AF…
- Why is anticoagulation therapy with warfarin (Coumadin) needed for some people with AF?
- How is the use of warfarin monitored?
- How does a doctor determine if a patient with AF needs to take warfarin?
- What’s the CHADS2 score and how is it used?
- If a patient’s CHADS2 score is 1, how do you decide between aspirin and warfarin, or nothing at all?
- Why is it so difficult to keep within therapeutic range with warfarin?
- Can I test my INR (a test measuring how long it takes blood to clot) at home?
- What happens if my INR is too high?
- What options are available if a patient cannot take warfarin?
- What are the benefits of dabigatran, a new blood-thinning alternative to warfarin therapy?
Symptom Control: The Art of Rate and Rhythm Control
For many patients and their doctors, it’s difficult to achieve and maintain heart rhythm. Two key management strategies are used: heart rate and heart rhythm control. In Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies, you’ll read an in-depth discussion of the benefits of rate versus rhythm control for AF:
- What have we learned from the AFFIRM study, and how has this knowledge affected the management of AF?
- What is catheter ablation of the AV (atrioventricular) node?
- Why is cardioversion needed?
- Are there different types of cardioversion?
- What is chemical cardioversion? What is electrical cardioversion?
- Can medication be used to convert the heart back to normal sinus rhythm?
- Which antiarrhythimic drugs are used to treat AF?
- How is catheter ablation for AF performed?
- What is pulmonary vein antrum isolation (PVAI) and how is it performed?
- Who are the best candidates for PVAI?
There’s more to Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies, much more.
We explain surgical ablation of AF, a procedure performed through small incisions in the chest wall… discuss when it’s appropriate to seek a second opinion… take a close look at strokes and explain the warning signs and differences among ischemic, thrombotic, embolic, and hemorrhagic strokes… and provide an arrhythmia glossary of key AF terms used by electrophysiologists and cardiologists.
Direct to You From Johns Hopkins
Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies is designed to give you unprecedented access to the expertise of the hospital ranked #1 of America’s Best Hospitals for 21 consecutive years 1991-2011 by U.S. News & World Report. You simply won’t find a more knowledgeable and trustworthy source of the medical information you require. A tradition of discovery and medical innovation is the hallmark of Johns Hopkins research. Since its founding in 1889, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has led the way transferring the discoveries made in the laboratory to the administration of effective patient care. No one institution has done more to earn the trust of the men and women diagnosed with AF and other cardiovascular conditions.
I actually consider this amazing blog , âSAME SCIENTIFIC IMPACT: Scientific Publishing –
Open Journals vs. Subscription-based « Pharmaceutical Intelligenceâ, very compelling plus the blog post ended up being a good read.
Many thanks,Annette
I actually consider this amazing blog , âSAME SCIENTIFIC IMPACT: Scientific Publishing –
Open Journals vs. Subscription-based « Pharmaceutical Intelligenceâ, very compelling plus the blog post ended up being a good read.
Many thanks,Annette