What is Atrial Fibrillation? Causes, Symptoms & Treatment Options
What is atrial fibrillation (AFib)?
AFib is the most common type of supraventricular tachycardia. During AFib, the heartbeat becomes irregular and rapid – sometimes up to 4 times faster than normal. This makes it hard for the heart to efficiently pump blood and increases the risk of blood clots forming, which may clog or block blood vessels.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of arrhythmia, a problem with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat. During an arrhythmia, the heart can beat too fast, too slow, or with an irregular rhythm. AF occurs if rapid, disorganised electrical signals cause the heart’s two upper chambers, the atria, to fibrillate.
What are the causes?
The cause of AFib is sometimes unknown. In other cases, damage occurs to the system that signals the heart to beat. Several factors can lead to this damage, with the most common being:
- Heart-related issues: Conditions such as high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, heart failure, heart valve disease, and heart surgery.
- Other health problems: Conditions like sleep apnea, thyroid disease, lung disease or lung cancer, excessive alcohol consumption, serious illness, or infections.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms of arrhythmias can vary widely from person to person. An arrhythmia may last for a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, even a few weeks at a time. Some people may also feel no symptoms at all. Most people with AF experience one or more of the following symptoms:
- Heart palpitations—sudden pounding, fluttering, or racing feeling in the chest
- Lack of energy, feeling tired
- Dizziness—a feeling of faintness or light-headedness
- Chest discomfort—pain, pressure, or discomfort in the chest
- Shortness of breath
AFib can put you at risk of other complications:
- Blood clots
- Stroke
- Heart failure
What are the treatment options?
- Cardiac ablation: Minimally-invasive procedure to identify and eliminate the source of disruption to the heart’s normal electrical system
- Lifestyle changes: Eat heart-healthy diet, limit/eliminate caffeine, exercise regularly, stop smoking etc.
- Medications: Antiarrhythmics – control rhythm of the heart, beta blockers – control rate at which heart beats
- Cardioversion: Deliver a therapeutic shock to the heart
What is Cardiac Ablation for atrial fibrillation and how does it work?
The first line of defense against AFib is usually medications like antiarrhythmics and anticoagulants (blood thinners), but each has side effects that can make it difficult to tolerate long-term. And then there’s another highly effective option for AFib treatment: cardiac ablation. Cardiac ablation is a minimally invasive procedure that creates scars on heart tissue to stop the electrical impulses that cause irregular heart rhythms
There are two different approaches to cardiac ablation for AFib: traditional thermal ablation, and a newer method called pulsed field ablation.
Thermal ablation for AFib
Traditional thermal cardiac ablation uses extreme heat or cold to create scar tissue that blocks signals causing abnormal rhythms, but has the potential to damage surrounding tissue in important areas.
Pulsed field ablation (PFA) for AFib treatment
The Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA) is the next generation of cardiac ablation. Instead of using thermal energy, PFA System uses short rapid pulses of energy to selectively target the area in the heart that causes an irregular heart rhythm, while preserving surrounding tissue. Unlike the risk of indiscriminate collateral damage caused by thermal energy sources, irreversible electroporation offers the ability to focus ablation on cells involved in atrial or ventricular arrhythmias.
