Answer:

In paroxysmal AF patients LAA seems to play a much bigger role in arrhythmogenesis. Ablating around the LAA from inside seems to be appealing - there are technical and anatomic difficulties in getting the job done. Complete electrical isolation of the LAA is very difficult and oftentimes they reconnect much faster. When it is isolated it looses its contractile function - despite rhythm control there will be significant stasis of blood resulting in the clots and higher risk of stroke. often times the area around the LAA osmium is paper thin and has pits that can lead to perforation and major complications. So removing it either by ligating or clipping it eliminates the arrhythmia source also reduces the effective LA volume and we believe also results in the alteration of the sympathetic systems to result in better AFib control. In most of the people the other parts of the heart and body compensate for the acute loss of atrial natriuretic peptide. So that is not something we should worry about.

Answer:

Alcohol is frequent trigger for AFib. It alters the physiology of the heart muscle and is notoriously associated with occurrence of AFib. My advice to you is to stop drinking Alcohol and get yourselves periodically checked. Read this article for more information on the link between alcohol use and AFib http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25707748

Answer:

It seems prudent to contact your cardiologist and tell him about these symptoms. They might be normal but also may represent some sort of residual ischemia.

Answer:

Can\'t give you advice on how to proceed in terms of where to have the tests done. Maybe your doctor can better help.

Answer:

It should be OK, there is no problem if you don\'t have ischemia in your tests (for instance during a treadmill test).

Answer:

The slow heart rate could be due to medications that are used after a heart attack (beta blockers) or due to dysfunction of the sinus node (the generator of the heart beat). You should tell your doctor about it.

Answer:

It is not normal to have such pain after stent implantation. You should see your doctor and check what is going on. It is possible to get a heart attack after a stent implantation, as for example when there is a clot in the stent.

Answer:

Amiodarone is the most effective antiarrhythmic drug to control AF. It is not only used for life threatening arrhythmias. However, it is also the one with the most worrisome side effects over the long run, with many organs involved, mainly the Thyroid, Liver, Eye, Lungs and Peripheral Nerves. You should talk to your doctor and weight the risks and benefits of such a treatment and consider also alternatives such as catheter ablation.

Answer:

If your valve has a severe leaking, then this could aggravate the AF and the skipped beats. Otherwise I don\'t believe there is a strong influence. It is hard to tell, since the AF can be progressing and more commonly you notice the skipped beats, irrespective of the vale leak.