AF benign -- if controlled

[Guest guest]

I like the comment in this Time Magazine article:

AF is relatively benign if it's controlled so there is no AF.......

from LJ

Posted Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006

The hunting mishap that involved Vice President Dick Cheney took a more serious

turn this afternoon. But it won't be clear just how serious until some key

questions are answered.

A spokesman for the Corpus Christi hospital that is caring for Harry

Whittington, the 78-year old lawyer who was accidentally shot by the Vice

President over the weekend, announced that Whittington had suffered " atrial

fibrillation " (a particular type of irregular heart rhythm) and a " minor heart

attack. " Beyond that, few details were immediately available. Conversations with

three physicians, none of whom has any direct information about Mr.

Whittington's condition other than what they've read or seen in the press,

suggest that the Texas lawyer did not suffer a heart attack in the classic sense

most of us think of one—in which a clot blocks the blood flow of an artery.

Instead, it appears Whittington suffered some damage—that could easily be

temporary—to part of his heart muscle from bird shot, which lodged in or near

the heart. " There are different types of heart attacks, plus nowadays [we can

measure] different sizes, " says Dr. McNamara, an echocardiographer at

Yale University School of Medicine and a spokesman for the American College of

Cardiology. Most likely, Dr. McNamara believes, the heart attack was detectable

only because of a change in Whittington's EKG or a change in certain enzyme

levels in the blood. In coming days, Whittington's doctors will be monitoring

him closely to see if he develops further problems. Because he underwent a

cardiac catheterization this morning, which reportedly showed his arteries are

in good shape, the greatest concern would be more problems with an irregular

heart beat. All things being equal, atrial fibrillation is a relatively benign

condition as long as it can be controlled. Indeed, says Dr. Calvin Weisberger, a

regional chief of cardiology for Kaiser Permanente, about 8% to 10% of people

over age 80 have a history of atrial fibrillation. Mr. Whittington's atrial

fibrillation could be due to his age, the stress of the accident, or the

biochemical response of the heart to the pellet. Doctors at the Corpus Christi

hospital will be watching to make sure Mr. Whittington does not develop

ventricular fibrillation, a more serious type of irregular heartbeat that can be

fatal within minutes. " It will stay a minor problem as long as the arrhythmia

stays under control, the heart muscle hasn't suffered permanent damage, he

doesn't have a further ongoing heart attack, and there's no fluid building up

around the heart, " says Dr. Soumi Eachempati, a trauma surgeon at New York

Hospital in New York City. Assuming nothing else goes wrong, however,

Whittington should be able to go home and resume a normal life.

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