The feeling of heart palpitations, dizziness, chest pains, shortness of breath, weakness are the most common symptoms of atrial fibrillation, although some patients do not feel any symptoms at all. If left untreated or not treated properly, it can lead to stroke and death.
Atrial fibrillation is a disease on the border of internal medicine and cardiology. It is characterized by an irregular heartbeat caused by damage to the atria, which “instead of contracting, they fall into a chaotic dance,” says Prof. Zbigniew Gaciong, head of the Department and Clinic of Internal Diseases, Hypertension and Angiology at the Medical University of Warsaw. As a result, the sinoatrial node, which acts as a pacemaker, ceases to control it, while the absence of atrial contractions causes blood stagnation and the formation of clots. The broken clots travel through the heart and vessels to reach the brain, lungs, and other parts of the body. If they close the cerebral artery, the brain will be cut off from its blood supply and a stroke will result. According to estimates, about 70 thousand people experience it annually. Poles. 30 thousand of them die (every third person in the first month after a stroke, half in a year), and the remaining 40. is permanently mutilated.
– Atrial fibrillation increases the risk of stroke five times. One in six strokes occurs in patients with atrial fibrillation, reminds Prof. Zbigniew Gaciong.
However, the bad news does not end there. Research shows that strokes caused by atrial fibrillation tend to be more severe and have a higher risk of death (by 20%) and disability (by 60%). 93 percent patients who manage to survive a stroke require help using the toilet, 65% one has to help with walking and one in three with eating.
The most common symptoms of a stroke are: paresis or paralysis of the muscles of the face, arm and / or leg (most often on one side of the body), speech, vision and walking disorders – with loss of balance and dizziness, and severe headache.
Over 7 years ago, the famous actor and cabaret artist Andrzej Zaorski suffered a stroke. “My right hand fell down and I couldn’t read because the letters were stuck together,” she recalls. He was taken to hospital in Pruszków. Before he underwent a CT scan of his head, his brain had changed irreversibly. For the first two months after his stroke, he was learning to speak anew. Today he speaks fairly fluently, but sometimes he stutters. He did not regain his former fitness and did not return to his profession. He does not perform on stage, but he took up directing, he also wrote a book about his disease “Hand, leg, brain on the wall”. – Sławomir Mrożek had a stroke a year and a half before me and he lost his sense of humor – Andrzej Zaorski jokes.
The most important diagnostic test for atrial fibrillation is electrocardiography (EKG). The doctor decides whether to use an appropriate treatment method depending on its results, but also on the symptoms. He will certainly recommend some kind of oral anticoagulant (e.g. acenocoumarol, warfarin) to help prevent a stroke. He can also prescribe antiarrhythmic drugs, although doctors believe that the most effective method of restoring the proper sinus rhythm is electrical cardioversion. Atrial fibrillation is also treated surgically by removing the atrial ear, the site where the fibrillation occurs, or by ablation, which involves “burning” the area in the heart that abnormally shrinks causing arrhythmia. – It happens that after successful ablation treatment with antiarrhythmic drugs can be abandoned, but anticoagulants must not be discontinued – warns Prof. Gaciong. He adds that a small group of younger patients with a low risk of stroke can be treated with acetylsalicylic acid, commonly known as aspirin.
Text: Mariola Marklowska-Dzierżak
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