afib stroke what causes
One of the most important risk factors is existing heart disease. Atrial fibrillation is common among those with coronary heart disease, valve disease, or an inflamed heart muscle or lining, or who have had a heart attack, congestive heart failure, or recent heart surgery. Being overweight is often mentioned as a risk factor for afib, but normal and underweight people have it, too. One woman's doctor attributed her atrial fibrillation to weight, and it went away briefly after her gastric bypass surgery, but it soon returned, triggered by a sinus infection. Sometimes the cause of AFib is unknown. Other times, it is the result of damage to the heart's electrical system from other conditions, such as longstanding, uncontrolled high blood pressureor coronary artery disease. AFib is also the most common complication after heart surgery. Another known risk factor is having too much or too little of some minerals in your body, such as calcium, magnesium, or potassium. As you age, your risk of atrial fibrillation increases. While men are more likely to develop atrial fibrillation, women are more likely to die prematurely from it. Atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation (AF or A-fib) is an abnormal heart rhythm characterized by rapid and irregular beating. Often it starts as brief periods of abnormal beating which become longer and possibly constant over time. Most episodes have no symptoms. AFib and Stroke. Atrial fibrillation is a risk factor for stroke. About 15 percent of all people who have strokes have AFib. Because of the irregular and chaotic flow of blood through the heart, small blood clots can form in the heart chambers when you have atrial fibrillation. Although atrial fibrillation can feel weird and frightening, an “attack of AFib” usually doesn’t have harmful consequences by itself. The real danger is the increased risk for stroke. Even when symptoms are not noticeable, AFib can increase a person’s risks for stroke and related heart problems. The clot blocks off the blood flow to the brain and causes a stroke. Clot can also go to the eyes, the extremities, the bowels... In each case it causes loss of blood flow, and depending on how large the clot is and where it goes, the magnitude of the damage. Those tissues that get starved of their blood supply die. If those arteries supply the brain, they cause a stroke. For this reason, people with persistent atrial fibrillation are usually anticoagulated with aspirin or warfarin (depending on the balance between the risk of stroke vs the side effects of either drug). Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is a heart rhythm abnormality caused by a problem with the heart's electrical system. Normally, the heart's electricity flows from the top chambers (atria) to the bottom chambers (ventricles), causing the normal contraction.
Irregular and chaotic flow of blood through the heart, small blood clots can form in the heart chambers when you have atrial fibrillation.