The long-term consequences of atrial fibrillation and heart failure can be similar to the “chicken and egg” theory as it’s often challenging to specify which came first.
The relationship between the two is only partly understood and there are many studies ongoing into this area. Certainly, one precipitates the other. So if you have AF you are more likely to develop HF and if you have HF you are more likely to develop AF. This could be due to:
- Common risk factors (I.e. hypertension, obesity, diabetes, age etc)
- Common cardiac conditions (valvular disease, ischaemia heart disease and structural heart disease).
These two things combined with a little science (myocardial and extra – cellular changes along with some electrophysiological and neurohormonal changes) create an environment which is predisposed to the development of both atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
| AF causes | ↑ Resting heart rate ↑ Exercising heart rate response |
Shorter diastolic filling time | ↓ In cardiac output | ATRIAL FIBRILLATION Likelihood of heart failure increased |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Further affected by | Irregular rate | ↓ In left ventricular filling | Loss of effective atrial contraction |
Pulse point
AF can also cause:
- Limited exercise quality
- Reduced Quality of Life
- Cardiomyopathy
- Increased hospitalisations
- Increase in mortality 2-fold
Page last reviewed: 29 Jul 2020
