Atrial fibrillation would affect more than 750,000 people in France. As part of the 2021 Week of Action concerning this disease, Why Doctor offers you a series of articles to better understand atrial fibrillation, its symptoms and the treatments to control it. Here, the testimony of a patient who, by working on her lifestyle, managed to control her AF with simple treatments while avoiding major intervention.
- Atrial fibrillation is a heart rhythm disorder
- The treatments are anticoagulants, antiarrhythmics and beta-blockers
- For patients also suffering from obesity, weight loss improves the effectiveness of these treatments
“I found a cruising speed with treatment with anticoagulants and beta-blockers and a healthy lifestyle”. Marie-Ange, 55, was diagnosed in 2008 as suffering from atrial fibrillation. The disease, which affects around 750,000 people in France, is a major heart rhythm disorder that results from a malfunction in the contractions of the atrium, whose role is to drive the blood back up from the heart to the ventricle.
Her doctors then quickly put her on treatment, but also suggested that she use electric shocks. To treat AF, one of the methods used is indeed cardioversion, that is to say small electric shocks which make it possible to resynchronize all the cardiac cells to restore the normal rhythm.
“I had electric shocks twice, both worked… but after a few days, my arrhythmia came back!”, says Marie-Ange, pointing out that she was suffering from obesity at the time, “this which didn’t help.”
A planned hybrid ablation
The patient is then put under a triple treatment, anti-coagulants, beta-blockers and diuretics. “My doctors were looking for the solution but despite all that, nothing helped”. They then discuss with her the possibility of a more radical approach, the hybrid ablation of atrial fibrillation. This technique combines two treatment strategies: examination and electrophysiological treatment with the catheter from the inside and surgical removal from the outside. Recent studies show that the combination of these two procedures significantly improves outcomes in cases of persistent atrial fibrillation. But, unlike conventional ablation, it is a major intervention requiring several days of hospitalization.
“Should I resolve to this end?” Marie-Ange wonders when the doctors assure her that they have “no other solution”… unless she manages to lose several tens of kilos. This is the path that the patient who loses 40 kilos in one year decides to follow. And the result is not long in coming: “My treatments have become effective!”, explains Marie-Ange.
“Today, I’m fine, but I’m being watched closely. Faced with this type of disease, you have to do everything you can to help your body! I want to say to all the people who have heart problems, and atrial fibrillation is one of those problems, which it is imperative to consult even if the symptoms do not seem serious”.
Below, the testimony of Marie-Ange, 55 years old:
Watch our Q&A program on atrial fibrillation:
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