Glossary

[Clarbrock]

I find all the subscribers very interesting but I have difficulty knowing what or who they are talking about, for instance EP? I had to work all these nemonics out! I have had permanent AF for about 7 years, it. Does not bother me much. If I feel odd I use the heart rate app and if my pulse is all over the place, I know it is time to lie down for a bit. I have been on Warfarin since I was diagnosed and Digoxin and tildiem(diliatzem ?spelling?) I find Warfarin fine it entails INR every month and there are various drugs I can't have. I have never been offered anything other, what is this bisoprodol u all talk about? I am 82 and my son has had Paroxysmal AF and ablations and finally cardoversion and he now says he is cured, probably no one has offered any of those to me because of my age?.?

[Beancounter Volunteer]

Hi Clarbrock, I cheated....... this has been asked before, so I cut and pasted this from a BobD post hope it helps

Atrial Fibrillation. Chaotic electrical activity in the left atria, the top left chamber of the heart.

Atrial flutter-. Chaotic electrical activity in the top right chamber, the right atria.

NSR- normal sinus rhythm.-- how your heart should be

INR -International Normalised Ratio --How quickly your blood clots and used as a measurement for warfarin dose'

EP -Electrophysiologist.- a cardiologist who specialises in rhythm problems

Chads2 or Chadsvasc2- a risk assessment tool for checking if you are at elevated stroke risk for patients with AF

Beta blocker- most drugs ending in lol Used to slow the heart rate in AF and hopefully reduce symptoms.

Rate control drugs such as flecainide and propafanone, used to try to maintain NSR.

Ablation, a procedure where an EP places a catheter inside the heart to make burn scars around the four pulmonary veins to try to stop the rogue electrical impulses which cause the AF.

Cro-ablation as above but using freezing instead of heat..

PVI pulmonary vein isolation. another term for ablation.

Be well

Ian

[Clarbrock in reply to Beancounter]

Thank you , I have never heard of this chads2 , what does it involve? Another question ! What is the medical name for warfarin?

[Beancounter Volunteer in reply to Clarbrock]

Hi Clarbrock

Chads2Vasc is a scoring system used to assess AF patients for stroke risk, plenty of online examples, just Google it

And the medical name for warfarin is warfarin, at least in the UK sometimes in the US you might see it called Coumadin.

Be well

Ian

[PeterWh]

See main AFA website where the is a specific booklet of abbreviations. You can download it and print it off.

I seem to recall that there was someone on here a few months back who was I. Their 80s and has had an ablation.

See your GP and get a referral to an EP and not to a general cardiologist.

Let us all know how you get on.

[Clarbrock in reply to PeterWh]

Thanks for your reply, I must find out who the nearest EP is as my 57 year old son has just had an AF episode, he says he is fine now, he always make light of health matters! I wonder if AF is in the genes, both sons have or had AF , I must be the culprit, my husband did not have it.

[PeterWh in reply to Clarbrock]

List of EPs on main AFA website.

It is very important that he sees an EP. AF begets AF and it will only get worse over time. That could be a matter of months or years. They key is also that he gets a complete set of baselines and then they will be able to monitor him, even if that is over a few years.

[Buffafly]

As you have permanent AF it is unlikely that an ablation will be successful so that may be why you have not been offered one. Bisoprolol is a beta blocker but not suitable for anyone with asthma or COPD, that may be why you are taking Diltiazem instead.

[Jonathan_C]

I get the sense that quite a few people use AF for atrial flutter and quite a few (other) people use it for Atrial Fibrillation ....

[PeterWh in reply to Jonathan_C]

Not just on here - it is an even wider "abuse" by people generally. Even had someone believe that AF is only an anxiety flutter once or twice a year when someone gets stressed or worried!!!

[CDreamer in reply to Jonathan_C]

AF = Atrial Fibrillation AFl = Atrial Flutter

[Jonathan_C in reply to CDreamer]

If everyone is sticking to that then there are a lot of people with very different experiences of a-fib to me.... which is obviously very possible

[Parkie10]

Hi Clarbrock,after 12 years chronic Afib I undertook an ablation and now my heartbeat is regular but no p wave which means apparently that the signal now comes from the av node.I feel better and was over 65 when it was done and my EP says age is not important.

[CDreamer]

My husband (82) was told that the assessment for any treatment, including ablation, is not conducted purely on chronological age, although that may be one factor, but on general health and how you present yourself. Hubbie participates in community activities and was otherwise fit and healthy so accessing treatments was not an issue.

For me however am 64 and have had 2 ablations in the past but would be very unlikely to be offered another if AF returned because I have another disease which means that any sedation or GA could be life threatening for me, therefor I am much higher risk for the doctors. Always a risk / benefit assessment and that will vary from Doctor to doctor and resources availability.