Don’t wait for heart failure to pay attention to atrial fibrillation

Case: Ms. Xu has been suffering from recurrent panic attacks for more than 10 years. In the past two years, she developed shortness of breath after activity and paroxysmal dyspnea at night, accompanied by intermittent swelling of both lower extremities, and ECG suggested atrial fibrillation. After treatment with diuretic dilation to improve cardiac function, she underwent radiofrequency ablation successfully. The patient complained of no significant chest tightness and shortness of breath, and no swelling of both lower limbs. Wang Xinhua, Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Renji Hospital Analysis: Long-term episodes of atrial fibrillation often lead to enlargement of the heart chambers and a decrease in heart function, resulting in the gradual appearance of heart failure symptoms such as chest tightness and shortness of breath after activity, paroxysmal dyspnea at night, and intermittent swelling of both lower limbs. Numerous related studies have shown that after radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation, follow-up cardiac ultrasound can reveal a reduction in atrial size compared to the previous one, and heart failure symptoms are significantly reduced or even disappeared compared to the previous one.