has anyone heard of any treatments to get your heart beating from a-fib to a normal beat?

Question

my husband's heart beats in atrial fibulation and the doctor wants to get it beating back to a normal rythm by doing cardio version.
Does anyone know how this is done. Also is it wise to get the heart beating normal if he suffered a mini stroke which was possibly caused by a blood clot.

Answer 1

An echocardiogram will be helpful in evaluating whether your husbands heart is likely to remain in normal sinus rhythm or will readily convert back to afib even after cardioverted. A month of therapeutic anti-coagulation is necessary by warfarin before a cardioversion should be attempted. (To prevent stroke) Often an electrical cardioversion is performed and then a loading dose of IV amiodarone (with a tapered down dosing of oral amiodarone eventually to 200mg daily) is used to maintain the cardioversion. We often keep this therapy in place for a minimum of six months, with anticoagulation treatment in place for the entire time. At six to eight weeks after discontinuing the amiodarone we use a 24 hour holter monitor to verify there are no break-through arrhythmias occuring. If they are not, then we discontinue the warfarin too.

If the echocardiogram shows a dilated right atria then we know it is unlikely the cardioversion will stick. Studies show that people do fine with a controlled rate chronic atrial fibrillation as long as they are anticoagulated. Why would you do a cardioversion if that is the case? Simple - the patient doesn't need to take high risk medications chronically when a cardioversion is successful.

Medications typically used to control the ventricle rate with atrial fibrillation are beta blockers such as Toprol, calcium channel blockers such as Diltiazem, and Digoxin. Sometimes these medications actually do a cardioversion on their own.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Prolonged RAPID afib is cardioverted in an ICU. It is a shock to the heart, just like you see on television. Your husband would be sedated for the procedure so he wouldn't experience much discomfort.

If your husband is in well-controlled afib (with a normal heart rate of 60-100) he should be on a blood thinner (coumadin) to prevent clot formation and an antiarrhythmic like digoxin or cordorone, to help prevent him from developing rapid afib. But there should be no cardoversion - this is a somewhat risky procedure used to restart the heart (the shock stops the heart for a moment) and the hope is that the heart will restart with a normal rate. If your husband is not sustaining a dangerously high heart rate, he should not have the procedure.

Answer 3

Atrial fib is not normally a big deal (you ARE talking about atrial fib, right....ventricular fib is different and a major problem). I would highly recommend though that any treatment you consider be at the behest of an actual cardiologist and not just a family doctor. Don't screw around with treatments like this.

Answer 4

Ya, it would be best to see a good cardiologist.
Atrial fibrillation can be treated with medicines like digoxin and cardioversion.

PS: the patient needs to be on anticogulants or something like
disprin and clopidogrel to avoid serious thrombo embolism that can result from blood clots due to atrial fibrillation. Patient can develop
focal defecit like hemiplegia also if not treated. You need to monitor your blood PT and PTTK for different anti coagulants.
So better consult a cardiologist. :)

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Please see the webpages for more details on Atrial fibrillation and Cardioversion.
Rhythm control methods include electrical and chemical cardioversion:
Electrical cardioversion involves the restoration of normal heart rhythm either through the application of a DC electrical shock (electrical cardioversion)
Chemical cardioversion is performed with drugs, such as amiodarone, propafenone or flecainide.