Atrial fibrillation is the most common irregular heart rhythm that starts in the atria. While it is often a mere annoyance, it can also be responsible for life-threatening medical emergencies that result in cardiac arrest, stroke and sudden death.
Take advantage of the opportunity to get your atrial fibrillation questions answered by afib experts from the Cleveland Clinic and the founder of StopAfib.org on a live chat October 30, 2012.
To learn more, see: Join atrial fibrillation experts from the Cleveland Clinic to get answers to your afib questions on October 30, 2012
I would like it know, statistically, what are the chances of getting a stroke with afib? According to my own research it is minimal, I myself haft two ablations. I’m 47. Is this heart complaint a major health risk in terms of gettin a stroke. Yes maybe in people over 70 but other problems come into play at that stage of your life anyway.
So is this a pharmaceutical industry fear? ie stroke risk, in keeping people on anticoagulants. So let get the discussion going and see what is fact and what is been diplomatic with the truth from all.
Geoffrey,
If you want to think of it as a pharma scar tactic, you can, but having had a close call myself when I didn’t have the risk factors, I personally think it’s for real.
The risk depends on your CHADS2 score. If you are a CHADS2 score of 0, you have a 1.9% per year risk, which is almost 10% over 5 years. But that didn’t stop me from having blood clots and a close call with a stroke on my first afib episode ever, which was at age 53. There are many people for whom the risk statistics are meaningless (just ask the young folks in our afib community who were CHADS2 scores of zero but still had strokes).
A CHADS2 score of 1 is 2.8% per year, so that’s 14% over 5 years. A CHADS2 score of 2 is 4% per year, or 20% over 5 years. That is not insignificant as 1 in 3 who have afib will have a stroke at some time in their lives. And after ablations, you have a higher risk of silent afib so you may not even know that you’re in afib.
Here is the chart with the details: http://www.stopafib.org/newsitem.cfm/NEWSID/220
Mellanie