Special Offer from Johns Hopkins Health Alerts
Straightforward Answers To Your Atrial Fibrillation Questions
A new report from one of the nation's leading cardiology research centers...
Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies
Straightforward,
informed answers to your most important questions about living
with atrial fibrillation - the most common sustained cardiac
arrhythmia.
Written by
Hugh G. Calkins, M.D., Director of the Arrhythmia Service
and Electrophysiology Lab at The Johns Hopkins Hospital,
and Ronald Berger, M.D.,
If you've ever run up a flight of stairs, chased a tennis ball across the court, or reacted in fright at a scary movie, you know what a pounding heart feels like...
But for the 2.3 million Americans who suffer from atrial fibrillation (AF or AFib), a racing heart is a way of life. Simple tasks like getting out of bed in the morning or rising from a chair can cause dizziness, weakness, shortness of breath, or heart palpitations. For these people, AF severely impairs quality of life - and even when symptoms stemming from AF are mild, the disorder can seriously impact health, increasing the risk of stroke and heart failure.
AF can be a debilitating even deadly condition. Fortunately, it can be successfully managed - but there are various approaches for treating AF or preventing a recurrence. How do you and your doctor choose which approach is right for you?
If you or a loved one has AF, there are so many questions: Do I need an anticoagulant... should I be taking medication to control my heart rate... will my symptoms respond to cardioversion... if I need an antiarrhythmic drug to control AF episodes, which one should I take... when is an ablation procedure appropriate... and more.
It's critically important to learn everything you can now -- so you can partner with your doctor effectively, ask the right questions, and understand the answers.
To help you, we asked two eminent experts at Johns Hopkins to share their expertise and hands-on experience with arrhythmia patients in an important new report, Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies.
Dr. Hugh Calkins and Dr. Ronald Berger are ideally positioned to help you understand and manage your AF. Together with their colleagues at Johns Hopkins, they perform approximately 2,000 electrophysiology procedures and 200 pulmonary vein isolation procedures for atrial fibrillation each year.
- Hugh Calkins, M.D. is the Nicholas J. Fortuin, M.D.
Professor of Cardiology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Director of the
Arrhythmia Service, the Electrophysiology Lab, and the Tilt Table
Diagnostic Lab at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has clinical and
research interests in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias with catheter
ablation, the role of device therapy for treating ventricular
arrhythmias, the evaluation and management of syncope, and the study of
arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.
- Ronald Berger, M.D., Ph.D., a Professor of Medicine
and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins, is Director of the
Electrophysiology Fellowship Program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He
serves on the editorial board for two major journals in the
cardiovascular field and has written and coauthored more than 100
articles and book chapters.
Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies is now available to you in a digital PDF download and print version.
"I feel like my heart is going to jump out of my chest..."
An arrhythmia is an abnormality in the timing or pattern of the heartbeat, causing the heart to beat too rapidly, too slowly, or irregularly. Sounds pretty straightforward, but there's a lot we don't know about why the heart rhythm goes awry... or the best way to treat it.
In Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies, we focus on what we DO know. In page after page of this comprehensive report, we address your most serious concerns about living with AF, such as:
- I don't have any symptoms. Is my problem definitely AF?
- Can drinking alcohol trigger or worsen AF?
- Is every person who has AF at risk for a stroke?
- If my doctor suspects AF, will I have to wear an implantable or
event monitor to be sure?
- Why does AF often show up later in life?
- What would you recommend to the older patient - 75 and older - who
has AF but no bothersome symptoms?
- What do you recommend for the person with longstanding persistent
AF?
- Is the AF experienced by an otherwise healthy person different from
that of a person with underlying heart disease or other health
issues?
- What are the differences among: paroxysmal AF, persistent AF, and
longstanding persistent AF?
- What is the "pill-in-the-pocket" approach to AF?
Anticoagulation Therapy: What You Should Know
While AF is generally not life threatening, for some patients it can increase the likelihood of blood clots forming in the heart. And if a clot travels to the brain, a stroke will result. Anticoagulation therapy is used to prevent blood clot formation in people with AF...
- Why is anticoagulation therapy with warfarin (Coumadin) needed for
some people with AF?
- How is the use of warfarin monitored?
- How does a doctor determine if a patient with AF needs to take
warfarin?
- What's the CHADS2 score and how is it used?
- If a patient's CHADS2 score is 1, how do you decide between aspirin
and warfarin, or nothing at all?
- Why is it so difficult to keep within therapeutic range with
warfarin?
- Can I test my INR (a test measuring how long it takes blood to clot)
at home?
- What happens if my INR is too high?
- What options are available if a patient cannot take warfarin?
- What are the benefits of dabigatran, a new blood-thinning
alternative to warfarin therapy?
Symptom Control: The Art of Rate and Rhythm Control
For many patients and their doctors, it's difficult to achieve and maintain heart rhythm. Two key management strategies are used: heart rate and heart rhythm control. In Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies, you'll read an in-depth discussion of the benefits of rate versus rhythm control for AF:
- What have we learned from the AFFIRM study, and how has this
knowledge affected the management of AF?
- What is catheter ablation of the AV (atrioventricular) node?
- Why is cardioversion needed?
- Are there different types of cardioversion?
- What is chemical cardioversion? What is electrical cardioversion?
- Can medication be used to convert the heart back to normal sinus
rhythm?
- Which antiarrhythimic drugs are used to treat AF?
- How is catheter ablation for AF performed?
- What is pulmonary vein antrum isolation (PVAI) and how is it
performed?
- Who are the best candidates for PVAI?
There's more to Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies, much more.
We explain surgical ablation of AF, a procedure performed through small incisions in the chest wall... discuss when it's appropriate to seek a second opinion... take a close look at strokes and explain the warning signs and differences among ischemic, thrombotic, embolic, and hemorrhagic strokes... and provide an arrhythmia glossary of key AF terms used by electrophysiologists and cardiologists.
Direct to You From Johns Hopkins
Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies is designed to give you unprecedented access to the expertise of the hospital ranked #1 of America's Best Hospitals for 21 consecutive years 1991-2011 by U.S. News & World Report. You simply won't find a more knowledgeable and trustworthy source of the medical information you require. A tradition of discovery and medical innovation is the hallmark of Johns Hopkins research. Since its founding in 1889, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has led the way transferring the discoveries made in the laboratory to the administration of effective patient care. No one institution has done more to earn the trust of the men and women diagnosed with AF and other cardiovascular conditions.
Still not sure
you'll benefit from this Special Report?
No problem. Our
No-Strings, Can't Lose, Must-Be-Satisfied Offer!
Atrial Fibrillation: The Latest Management Strategies comes with a risk-free offer of satisfaction: if you're not satisfied for any reason, simply return your report for a prompt refund of your full purchase price of $29.95. So you risk nothing. Don't hesitate -- arm yourself with the facts about AF. Place your risk-free order today.
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