Atrial fibrillation is a common arrhythmia found in greater than 1% of persons older than 60 years. This rate rises to above 5% in people older than 69, and increases to more than 10% in people older than 79. Prevalence of this disorder increases dramatically with age, but it is also becoming more prevalent with time, even after adjustment for age and underlying structural heart disease. More than 85% of patients with atrial fibrillation are older than 65. In the elderly this disorder causes substantial morbidity including stroke, heart failure, and hospitalization. Patients require an anticoagulant to prevent stroke; this therapy occasionally causes cerebral hemorrhage and requires bothersome laboratory testing every 2 weeks.
Younger patients between the ages 25 and 50 are occasionally affected with atrial fibrillation because of the presence of underlying heart diseases that include congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathy, rheumatic heart disease, mitral stenosis, mitral regurgitation, and other valvular disorders. In more than 30% of cases in younger individuals with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation no obvious structural heart disease was detected on examination of the individual or on tests such as echocardiography and cardiac nuclear scans.

Страницы: 1 | 2