Complications & Prognosis of Atrial Fibrillation

Complications

Blood Clots

Basically, when the atria do not contract normally, in this case, a weak contraction, blood tends to pool in the atria instead of being pumped into the ventricles. Hence, quite obviously, pooled blood will form blood clots. Now, these blood clots can do just about anything other blood clots can. More complications can occur, such as...

Pulmonary Embolism & Stroke

Now, we can expect the blood clot to travel to a vessel in the lung, blocking it, thus causing a pulmonary embolism. The same blood clot can also actually travel to a vessel in the brain, causing a stroke. These are major complications, of course. The same blood clot can actually block blood flow in just about any vessel in the body.

Congestive Heart Failure

This complication arises when frequent periods of atrial fibrillation (said to last longer than a few months) have stretched out the walls of the heart, thus, weakening the heart. Now, your heart is too weak to push or pull blood from the body's vessels. Without enough power, blood gets congested, usually, but not limited to, the lower peripheries, thus causing swelling. The same can also happen in the lungs, making it harder to breathe, especially while lying down.

Link : http://heart.emedtv.com/atrial-fibrillation/atrial-fibrillation-complications.html

Prognosis

I'm leaving links to specific articles which may be useful to those who are interested in the specifics. But in a heartbeat, patients with atrial fibrillation can be classified into low, intermediate, and high risk patients. And the prognosis for each is different.

High-risk factors include prior stroke, transient ischaemic attack (mini stroke), and systemic thromboembolism.

Moderate-risk factors include age older than 75 years, hypertension, heart failure, and diabetes mellitus.

Risk factors of unknown significance include female gender, age 65-74 years, coronary artery disease, and thyrotoxicosis.

Basically, the prognosis become better, for people in the low-risk category.

Generally, in another research shown, patients with paroxysmal AF have the same mortality rate as patients without AF. However, with increased age, paroxysmal AF may evolve into chronic AF, which carries a higher mortality rate.

Also, note that prognosis is good for an AF patient, if cause of AF is found and treated.

Link: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/151066-overview

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2261/5/20#B18