Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation..
Atrial fibrillation is an electrical abnormality in the heart. It affects the way the electrical wiring in the heart works. Stroke results when a blood clot develops in the heart and travels to the brain.
Atrial fibrillation is best described with an analogy of an Olympic sized boat with 40 rowers, listening to a single person in front who is setting the rhythm by shouting ‘Row!’. This is the normal heart. Now imagine various rowers standing up, in no particular order, and shouting ‘Row!’. Other rowers who are not standing up respond to the command, but this results in chaos. This is atrial fibrillation
When the chaos sets in and the rowers are paddling in no particular organization, the movement of the boat is not as effective. Also, the paddlers are rowing too fast to actually dig into the water and push the boat anywhere. The end-result is a complete standstill of the boat. Something similar happens in the upper chambers in atrial fibrillation. The electrical chaos fails to organize an effective contraction of the upper chambers. Consequently, the blood does not move as vigorously through the upper chamber and tends to stagnate in certain cesspools, one of them being an out-pouching of the left upper chamber called the left atrial appendage.
Stroke in atrial fibrillation results when the blood stagnates, this can result in a blood clot. The risk of forming a clot depends on various risk factors including the age, hypertension, diabetes, previous stroke or heart attack, heart failure, vascular disease and female gender. The more the risk factors, the more the likelihood of clot formation. This blood clot could then be pushed out of the heart and cause a stroke.
More detailed description about atrial fibrillation can be found here.
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All opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of the employer. Information provided here is for medical education only. It is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice.
