Difficulties of Working as a Paramedic - Essay Example

Atrial fibrillation may cause no symptoms but is frequently linked to chest pain, congestive heart failure, or palpitations. The paper explores why atrial fibrillation is commonly linked with Right and Left atrial enlargement, pulmonary and valvular dysfunction. Various patients manifest diverse symptoms, with some patients manifesting skipped heartbeats, irregular heartbeat, and powerful heart palpitations (Estafanous, Barash & Reves, 2001). Based on the fact that the blood does not properly move from the atrial into the ventricles and to the rest of the body, it may deprive the body of oxygen-rich blood, leaving the patient feeling weak, incapacitated, or tired.

In extreme cases, the blood remaining in the atria can pool and generate blood clots that may be spawned to the entire body yielding to stroke. Discussion Atrial fibrillation is linked to numerous conditions, including high blood pressure; coronary artery disease; heart valve disease; chronic lung disease; cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease, and heart failure. Atrial fibrillation details can be regarded as the most dominant cardiac arrhythmia other than tachycardia manifested in hyperthyroidism.

The electrical impulse starts within the sinus node located within the right atrium. The firing of the sinus node transmits an impulse of electrical activity that extends via the right and left atria, making them contract. As a result, blood is forced into the ventricles (Otto, Bonow & Otto, 2009). Atrial fibrillation (AF) has been linked to numerous wavelets with chaotic reentry within the atria; nevertheless, in most cases, the firing of an octopus focus within the pulmonary veins is mainly linked to the onset and sustenance of atrial fibrillation.

In AF, the atrial usually fails to contract, and the atrioventricular conduction system is confronted by numerous electrical stimuli rendering inconsistent impulse transmission and an erratic ventricular rate that ranges around tachycardia rate. AF features as one of the most prominent arrhythmias, and its prevalence increases with age (Estafanous, Barash & Reves, 2001). The loss of atrial contraction is responsible for the severe hemodynamic impairment that manifests with the onset of atrial fibrillation.

The left ventricular pressure or volume overload may yield irregular septal motion. When the mitral valve is minimised to less than 2cm2 by stenosis, a pressure gradient usually develops across the valve. This necessitates an increase in pressure within the left atrial so as to sustain the cardiac output (Jayaprasad & Johnson, 2005). Based on the progression of stenosis, increases within the left atrial pressure are conveyed to the pulmonary vasculature with a resultant reduction within the pulmonary compliance that yields to an increase in lung stiffness and enhanced work of breathing.

The left atrial pressure increases to sustain vertical filling and cardiac output leading to left atrial enlargement. We left atrial dilation in time yields to atrial dysrhythmias commonly linked to atrial fibrillation. Pulmonary and tricuspid valve diseases detail right-side heart diseases. Pulmonary valve diseases can be considered as the least common heart valve disease among adults encompassing: pulmonary valve stenosis, pulmonary valve insufficiency, pulmonary valve incompetence; and, pulmonary valve regurgitation (Jayaprasad &Johnson, 2005). Right atrial enlargement highlights an increase in the size of the upper chamber/atrium on the right side of the heart. Ultimately, an increased flow of blood within the right side of the heart is linked to higher pressure within the lungs, which leads to damaging the pulmonary blood vessels.