What are the complications of Atrial Fibrillation? - Dr. Ranjan Shetty

AF is not just an irregular heart beat or not just an ECG diagnosis or you feel it irregular. Cardiovascular problem is the upper chamber is not able to pump and your overall cardiac output is reduced to 70 to 80% of the normal. This is not a big problem because most people do compensate for this. The biggest problem of atrial fibrillation is the clot formation. Since the upper chamber is not contracting, just shaking there is tendency for clot formation in one particular area which we call as the left atrial appendage and this clot can go anywhere. The biggest issue is clot going to the brain and formation of a clot. This is deadly. The strokes produced by atrial fibrillation are more deadly and life threatening. They also obstruct large vessel and there is more disability and more death. Most of the strokes are related to this. The single most problem of atrial fibrillation is stroke. 30% of the strokes are directly related to atrial fibrillation and if you do long term study using Holter test or Event loop recorder up to 2/3rd of the patients do have some sort of problem is the rhythm and more commonly it is atrial fibrillation.