Atrial fibrillation is an abnormal heart rhythm that causes a reduction in the cardiac output and blood flow to the brain.
Atrial septal defect | atrial septal defect | Atrial fibrillation |
In 1987, Dr. James Cox introduced an open-heart surgical procedure which has been subsequently established as capable of curing Atrial Fibrillation.
Only in the 1990s the pioneering work of Michel Haïssaguerre's group focused on the role of the pulmonary veins as the trigger of Atrial Fibrillation.
Digoxin (a mildly positive inotrope and negative chronotrope), once used as first-line therapy, is now reserved for control of ventricular rhythm in patients with atrial fibrillation; or where adequate control is not achieved with an ACEI, a beta blocker and a loop diuretic.
Among patients in the warfarin group, the proportion of time in which the intensity of anticoagulation was in the therapeutic range TTR (mean, 55%), was lower than in previous studies of other new anticoagulants in patients with atrial fibrillation (range, 64 to 68%).