Atrial Fibrillation (A-Fib) is like a jealous ex who keeps trying to plague the heart with recurrence. I like to think of A-Fib as “Dementia of the heart” and A-Fib with RVR as “Delirium of the heart”. And If you look up risk factors of Dementia and A-Fib, they are very similar and frequently co-exist – indeed some scientists think Paroxysmal AFib throwing up micro-clots to the brain is probably contributory to vascular dementia !
But I digress – A-Fib has a bunch of risk factors & triggers and correcting them or controlling them better might not only help flip back A-Fib back to sinus rhythm and reduce recurrence but also help control rate better in Chronic A-Fibbers.
A-Fib is an odd pace for the heart to have, you can use “THIS ODD PACE” to recall A-Fib risk-factors & triggers:
T – Thyroid excess
H – Hypertension (number one risk factor)
I – Infections
S – Surgery recent, Smoking
O – OSA, Obesity
D – Dehydration & Drugs
D – DKA, Uncontrolled Diabetes
P – Pulm Embolism , Pneumothorax & other Pulm disease
A – Alcohol binge drinking
C – Cardiac causes, (e.g post-CABG, ACS/MI, valve disease) , Central Lines
E – Electrolyte Abnormalities including low Magnesium
And no – contrary to popular belief, Caffeine consumption does NOT increase risk of Atrial Fibrillation…
P.S. : Fixing AFib-RVR with ACBDEF
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