Doctors & patients are saying about 'A-Fib.com'...
"A-Fib.com is a great web site for patients, that is unequaled by anything else out there."
Dr. Douglas L. Packer, MD, FHRS, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
"Jill and I put you and your work in our prayers every night. What you do to help people through this [A-Fib] process is really incredible."
Jill and Steve Douglas, East Troy, WI
“I really appreciate all the information on your website as it allows me to be a better informed patient and to know what questions to ask my EP.
Faye Spencer, Boise, ID, April 2017
“I think your site has helped a lot of patients.”Dr. Hugh G. Calkins, MD Johns Hopkins,
Baltimore, MD
AF Symposium 2015
Jeremy Ruskin, MD
Can Anyone in A-Fib Really Be Asymptomatic?
Dr. Jeremy Ruskin of Massachusetts General made a statement during the ‘Challenging Cases’ discussions which changed my thinking about the true nature of asymptomatic or ‘silent’ A-Fib.
In the case being discussed, Dr. Ruskin recommended an Electrocardioversion to get the asymptomatic patient back in Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR). Many times patients who are used to living with their A-Fib will indeed notice a difference when returned to NSR—they often feel much better.
Editor’s Comments:
In A-Fib, you lose 15%-30% of your normal pumping blood volume because the atria fibrillate instead of pumping blood down into the ventricles. Not everyone may “feel” A-Fib symptoms like chest pains, palpitation or shortness of breath. But losing that amount of blood flow must affect your body and brain in some way. Patients with persistent A-Fib may adjust their life-style to this loss of blood flow or just get used to it. Or they may compensate with strenuous exercise (making the ventricles suck blood down from the non-functioning atria like a turkey baster). But A-Fib is affecting them, consciously or not.
I have a friend who is in persistent A-Fib and is “asymptomatic.” He is a swimmer and exercises a lot. He does take a blood thinner to prevent an A-Fib stroke (which he doesn’t like. He wants to get a Watchman device installed to close off his Left Atrial Appendage [LAA] so that he doesn’t have to take anticoagulants).
I will now recommend to my friend that he get an cardioversion to see if he notices a difference when he is in Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR) compared to being in persistent A-Fib. A cardioversion is non-invasive and pretty safe. The only problem is that the result often doesn’t last. But even if it lasts for just a few days, my friend would still be able to compare being in NSR versus living in persistent A-Fib. (I’ll also remind him that the best way to get off of anticoagulants is to cure your A-Fib.)
And returning to NSR after a cardioversion even for a few days is generally a good sign that a successful catheter ablation may fix his A-Fib, that his A-Fib hasn’t progressed so far that he can’t be shocked out of it.
Return to AF Symposium 2015: Brief Reports
Last updated: Friday, February 27, 2015
