Atrial Fibrillation: Etiologies

Atrial fibrillation, a multifaceted arryhythmia, is linked to several underlying conditions or causes. They include:
Heart disorder – considered a lifestyle disease, it damages the structure or hinders the functions of the heart. This disorder and its subsequent complications can be prevented through lifestyle modification and risk factor awareness.

Myocarditis – a study showed that isolated atrial myocarditis may trigger paroxysmal atrial fibrillation that may result to sudden death.

Coronary artery disease – atrial fibrillation is common among patients who have undergone cardiac artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). A study showed that simultaneous left and right atrial pacing is effective in preventing fibrillation after CABG.

Hyperthyroidism – atrial fibrillation is considered as the most common cardiac arrhythmia complication of hyperthyroidism. The complication occurs to almost 15 percent of hyperthyroid patients and increases as a person gets older. About 25 percent to 40 percent of hyperthyroid patients aged 60 years and above experience this atrial complication.

Rheumatic heart disease – a chronic rheumatic heart disease may result to patients developing valve stenosis with various degrees of atrial dilation, ventricular dysfunction and atrial arrhythmias.

Hypertension – this disease often coexist with atrial fibrillation and their incidence commonly occur among older people. Hypertension is linked to left ventricular hypertrophy, left atrial enlargement, impaired ventricular filling and atrial conduction velocity impairment. Treatment of hypertension among patients with heart fibrillation may reduce thromboembolic complications and prevent or eliminate the occurrence of atrial disorder.

Sick sinus syndrome – a type of conduction system disease, sick sinus syndrome involves the atrioventricular (AV) nodes. Studies showed that abnormalities in AV-nodal conduction are prevalent in almost 50 percent of people with sick sinus syndrome. Atrial condition is linked to slow ventricular response in patients with AV-nodal abnormalities.

Congenital heart disease – An atrial condition commonly occurs among patients with congenital heart disease. Atrial septal defects occur in nearly 19 percent of adults with congenital heart disease. Atrial condition is also associated with other forms of heart disease that affect the atria, such as patent ductus arteriosus and Ebstein’s anomaly.

Heart failure – Several studies have shown that treatment of heart failure may have significant result on the survival of patients with atrial fibrillation.

Similarly, an increase of sudden death is observed on patients with heart failure and atrial condition.

Preexcitation syndrome – About 10 to 35 percent of patients who have preexcitation syndrome, such as Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW), have reportedly developed an atrial condition. In WPW, even sporadic ventricular premature heartbeats can trigger atrial condition.

Because of its diverse etiologies, atrial fibrillation should not be considered as a single disease but as a collection of diseases.