Best Cardiologist in London

 Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is a common heart rhythm disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. In AFib, the heart's upper chambers (atria) beat irregularly and out of sync with the lower chambers (ventricles). While living with AFib is manageable with proper medical care and lifestyle adjustments, there are several things you should avoid to reduce the risk of complications and improve your overall quality of life. In this article, we will explore what you should not do if you have atrial fibrillation. Ignore Your Medication One of the most crucial aspects of managing AFib is adhering to your prescribed medication regimen. Medications like blood thinners, antiarrhythmics, and rate control drugs are often prescribed to help regulate your heart rhythm and prevent blood clots. Skipping doses or discontinuing medications without consulting your healthcare provider can increase your risk of stroke, heart attack, or other serious complications associated with AFib. Overindulge ...

  London, UK - Atrial fibrillation, commonly known as AFib, is the most common heart rhythm disorder globally. It is estimated that around 1 million people in the UK have AFib, with a growing prevalence in major cities like London. AFib is a condition where the upper chambers of the heart beat irregularly and often rapidly, causing symptoms like heart palpitations, fatigue, and shortness of breath. If left untreated, AFib can significantly increase the risk of stroke and heart failure. According to new statistics from the British Heart Foundation, the number of AFib cases in London has increased by nearly 30% over the past decade. Researchers cite an aging population, increased rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and sleep apnea as factors contributing to rising AFib numbers. Air pollution in London is also believed to be an emerging trigger for heart arrhythmias like AFib. "AFib used to be viewed as a benign condition associated with old age, but we now know it has serious ...

. ATRIAL FIBRILLATION: On your rhythm strip, the two most important characteristics are: . 1) A rhythm that’s IRREGULARLY irregular (meaning there’s no way to predict the next beat) 2) No discernible P waves . In fact, if you notice an irregularly irregular rhythm and you’re having to convince yourself that you see P waves... it’s probably A-fib (multifocal atrial arrhythmias like WAP/MAT could fit the differential) . *In my opinion: Don’t get caught up in using fibrillation waves as an absolute criteria. Very fine A-fib can sometimes produce a near isoelectric line between beats. . JUNCTIONAL RHYTHMS: The pacemaker cells surrounding the AV junction are capable of initiating regular impulses but at a slightly slower natural rate than their sinus and atrial superiors. The heart is built this way so that when the pacemaker cells with the fastest intrinsic rates are in action, those below are suppressed and function primarily to pass along the impulse from above. . For these reasons, we s...

  Atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter are two similar cousin rhythm disorders. The approach to them can be similar in many ways, and many patients have both of them. Thus, we will talk about them together. First, before the treatment of the a-fib or a-flutter, we typically perform tests to see if there are other causes or contributing factors. This may include blood work, an echocardiogram, a sleep study if we're looking for sleep apnea, etc. Pin on Health is wealth 1. What is Atrial Flutter? Atrial flutter occurs when the electrical impulses form a circuit on top of the right atria (upper chambers of the heart), causing it to beat much rapidly than normally at approximately 300 beats per minute (bpm) instead of the normal 60-90 bpm. The impulses https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/624452304591722630 In atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter, the top chambers of the heart, the atria, are beating very fast and basically quivering. This results in several issues, and we typically thin...

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm abnormality, and it results in the upper chamber of your heart beating extremely fast, 500, 600 beats a minute. This causes an irregular rapid heartbeat. It's very much of an age related problem. It's rare before 50, by the time you're 80, one in 10 people have Afib. It's also more common if you have other types of heart disease, if you're very obese, sometimes it runs in families. So it's a very common important problem affecting about over five million adults in the United States. Diagnosis of atrial fibrillation is by obtaining an EKG, which will document atrial fibrillation. And so this is something that your internal medicine doctor may do, maybe picked up incidentally when you're getting a routine checkup, or you may have symptoms. Your heart may be racing. You may feel fatigued, know that something's not right, an EKG is obtained, and you're told you have atrial fibrillation. The first thin...

Atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation are both heart rhythm abnormalities, and both these rhythm abnormalities can cause symptoms of palpitations, shortness of breath and lightheadedness. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ATRIAL FLUTTER AND ATRIAL FIBRILLATION Atrial flutter is a regular rhythm that is due to a fixed distance “short circuit” within the right atrial chamber giving an atrial rate of 300 beats per minute (bpm). This typically gives a heart rate which is directly divisible by 300: for example 150bpm, 100bpm, 75bpm, 60bpm, 50bpm. This heart rate profile in such cases normally looks like a straight line – ie with a single heart rate, often at 150bpm throughout the daytime, and perhaps a little slower at 100bpm or 75pm at night, appearing in “steps”. In atrial fibrillation, the abnormal circuits are seen within the left atrium. There are multiple circuits with varying cycles within the left atrium, which leads to a characteristic irregularly irregular heart rhythm profile, where heart rate...

Emergency doctors can help make you arrive at a clear diagnosis with a simple ECG. Please do take a copy or if not, capture a photograph of that all-important ECG on your phone. It may be the only documentation of the palpitation you may get! This is crucially important for your cardiologist (specifically electrophysiologist – a cardiologist with a specialized interest in palpitations) to be able to make appropriate onward treatment recommendations at a later stage. If you are in persistent tachycardia, the emergency doctor can give you specific treatment for your condition. For example, if you have supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), you can be given a drug called adenosine which is highly successful at terminating or stopping the SVT. You can usually be started on a drug immediately such as a beta-blocker (something that ends in a – olol, e.g. bisoprolol, metoprolol, or calcium blockers such as verapamil or diltiazem) to help minimize further recurrences, and should be asked to be se...

Patients come to me all the time and they have palpitations. They feel their heart beating. Most of these people actually it’s their own rate going fast at times. And it’s what I call the princess and the pea syndrome. Some people feel everything and you can put as many mattresses as you want on top of that pea and they still feel it. And that’s very unfortunate. Whereas other people can be in almost life-threatening rhythms and they don’t feel anything. So the sensation of an arrhythmia is very difficult to pinpoint even for a doctor. You need proof. So if you’re having a feeling of palpitations, it’s a very simple way to figure it out. We just give you a monitor to wear for a given period of time and we correlate your symptoms with the electrocardiographic representation. We can even use phone apps now to do it, and if your symptoms turn out to be atrial fibrillation then we have to go down that path. This is not to be disparaging to any doctor who listens for 15 seconds on a patient...

  We have two new risks for atrial fibrillation and an intriguing study on the duration of anticoagulation after bioprosthetic aortic valve. So first up is a study from the women's health initiative that, as we know, randomized women to receive estrogen, with or without progesterone, depending on whether they did or did not have had a hysterectomy. And this analysis looked over about a six-year follow-up period. To see the incidence of new atrial fibrillation that they found was modestly increased by about twelve percent overall, and this sum is a new finding, combined with other risks that have previously been seen of pulmonary, embolism, VTE and indeed cardiovascular events and so another factor to consider. When thinking about estrogen replacement therapy, next up is a study from the Framingham risk study looking at low magnesium, that was also seen to be a  risk factor for incidence of atrial fibrillation  looking at the lowest quartile. That is less than one point: s...

  Atrial fibrillation is a cardiac arrhythmia, more commonly known as AFib. This is one of the supraventricular tachycardias. In a normal heart, the wavelengths of the electric waves are transferred from the SA node to the AV node in an organized manner. Once there is an organized conduct, passing from the SA node to the AV node, then it will be obtained concentrated or uniform conduction of atrial tissue. But with AFib, the wavelengths are a mess. Notice how fickle they are and go everywhere. Because this organized signal is lost, there will be no single abbreviation of the atria, instead, with these intermittent waves, there will be atrial spasms. In fact, it looks like there is a bag worms in the atria and they all move around, if you can imagine it. Also, the waves are doing their job, so they will signal the AV node intermittently, and this will lead to an irregular heartbeat, due to intermittent stimulation. They say that the classic ECF of AFib is incorrectly inconstant. Wha...

  In a healthy heart, the rate and rhythm of the heartbeat are controlled by an electrical system. A series of coordinated electrical signals start in a part of the heart called the Sinus Node. The electrical impulse then spreads across the heart and tells it when and where to contract, or squeeze. This synchronized heartbeat continuously circulates blood from the lungs, through the heart, and out to the rest of the body to deliver oxygen. In people with   atrial fibrillation --also called AFib--the electrical signals are abnormal, and largely chaotic, and cause the heart's chambers to beat irregularly, and often rapidly. If you have been diagnosed with AFib, you are not alone. AFib is the most common type of irregular heartbeat, and an estimated 2.7 to 6.1 million Americans are living with AFib. Some people with AFib never experience symptoms and are diagnosed when a healthcare professional detects an irregular heartbeat. It's estimated that one-third of Americans who have AF...

  Abnormal heart rhythms can be dangerous or not dangerous than ones that aren't dangerous. Things are usually just little extra beats and your heart is quite unique. It can generate electricity anywhere through its entirety, and sometimes that manifests is just little extra beats. Sometimes they don't even feel it and it's just picked up in other ways. Often those kinds of things is not dangerous at all. The dangerous heart rhythm is usually seen in association with structural or functional problems in the heart. There'S also another group of rhythms that can occur usually due to changes in genetics. So the way your heart's put together electrically is not normal and the heart can't be otherwise very normal in that situation, but people can still be at risk of having life-threatening heart rhythm disturbances. So when people have an arrhythmia, sometimes they have symptoms. The symptoms can range from simply a sense of skipping them extra beats. Sometimes they ...

Here’s a great illustration on the pathway of blood flow through the heart. It may seem easy...but you should know this cold as well as the cardiac anatomy, both of which will make procedures and understanding hemodynamics easier. . . . 💙VENOUS BLOOD- Blood flows into the heart (into the right atrium) through two major veins (the superior and inferior vena cava) as well as from the coronary sinus (cardiac venous blood from the coronaries) and then out through the first AV valve (tricuspid valve) into the right ventricle. From there blood flows into the right ventricular outflow tract, across the first semilunar valve (pulmonic valve) and into the main and then left and right pulmonary arteries. Blood then enters the lungs to become oxygenated. . . . ❤️ARTERIAL BLOOD- now that blood is oxygenated flow goes from the lungs into the left atrium through 4 veins (usually) called the pulmonary veins. From the left atrium blood flows across the other AV valve (mitral valve) and into the left ...

Fainting happens when your brain doesn’t get enough blood, and that causes you to briefly lose consciousness. What Causes Fainting: Hyperventilation Low blood sugar. Being pregnant Having anemia. Emotional stress. How to Diagnose  VASOVAGAL SYNCOPE How to Tell If Someone May Faint: *The patient says they feel nauseous. * Yawning frequently * Feelings of restless * Complaints of feeling lightheaded or dizzy * The skin looks pale, feels cool and may be clammy or sweaty * Complaining of tightness in the chest * Having palpitations