Heart disease 101: AF and Coronary Artery Disease — related, incidental or both?

There were many good questions raised on my last post. Thanks. One particularly relevant theme concerned the relationship of atrial fibrillation (AF) and coronary artery disease (CAD). There’s a great deal of misunderstanding out there on how these two common disease relate to each other. I thought a few paragraphs might be useful. On the matter of ‘arrhythmia’ and coronary artery disease: I stated in the George Bush piece that a good reason to open a partially occluded artery with a stent was to treat an arrhythmia. I should have said ventricular arrhythmia or ventricular tachycardia (VT). I told you a partially blocked artery might cause an imbalance of nutrient flow to an area of downstream heart muscle–so-called ischemia. It is well-known that ischemia (low blood flow) can cause electrical irritability in the ventricle. The treatment of an arrhythmia in the presence of ischemia is often directed at improving blood flow. The president might have had ventricular tachycardia on the stress test. If this were the ‘abnormality,’ then stenting a blockage would have been excellent therapy. Ischemia-related ventricular tachycardia is common. The relationship between atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease is more complex. It’s an important topic because much of the excess fear that comes with AF stems from misunderstanding the relationship between electrical and structural heart disease. And you know what happens when fear and confusion g...
Source: Dr John M - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: blogs