peopleAbout Health&
Table of contents
Feel like sharing?
Atrial fibrillation is an irregularity in the heart's rhythm (arrhythmia). During atrial fibrillation, the heart beats abnormally and often fast. It can lead to heart failure, stroke and death. Atrial fibrillation is estimated to affect 5 million people in the US. It is especially common in people over 75 years.[1]
X
The economic costs of atrial fibrillation in Australia. PricewaterhouseCoopers. Accessed 30 March 2015 from
External link
The heart consists of four chambers, two upper (atria) and two lower (ventricles). Inside the upper right chamber (right atrium) is the heart's natural pacemaker, the sinus node. The sinus node normally produces rhythmic contractions of heart muscle using regular electrical impulses. These travel through the atrium and are transmitted to the ventricles by the atrioventricular (AV) node.However, during atrial fibrillation, the sinus node is overwhelmed by random electrical disc