I have a friend (more of an acquaintance, but I digress) who is in her mid 20s and has experienced multiple instances of AFib over the past few years. She has required a handful of cardioversions. She has no history of drug or alcohol use, no other comorbidities.
The above is all I know. I'm not close with her, I'm not at all involved in her care, and she's never once asked me for advice or anything, so no, this isn't homework or asking medical advice.
The average age of my patients for my career is more than double her age (closer to triple anymore) and I see a lot of AF in that population, typically with a CAD history.
So my question is...why would a young person such as my friend here have A fib? I know I sound like an ignoramus, but all I can think of is some congenital issue possibly. But I feel as if she would have experienced prior issues if that were the case (unless it was previously undiagosed). Also, I don't know her family history.
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
I did a quick google of this and found many references (not just Wiki! ) to this issue.
I know when we first began doing ablations in our cath lab, through my reading I was surprised to note the prevalence of arrhythmia troubles among younger patients -- apparently born with aberrant pathways that revealed themselves in recurrant arrhythmias later.
Read on!
I haven't been able to find anything other than some case studies. I'm usually pretty decent in my search engine game but I kept coming up with CHD, which is not the case here.
And, yes, I did become frustrated with my results and then used my "secondary google (AKA allnurses search) to find some info. When that yielded little, I started this topic. So I know you're right.
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
Conduction problems can be secondary to drugs, but don't know your friend. A defect called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (the thing that kills young athletes), can mimic aortic stenosis which would cause mitral regurg and affect the atrium. If she's an athlete, this would be more likely.
Not an athlete, no drug use either. This is why I thought it so interesting. The more I read, the more I'm leaning toward a genetic predisposition.
Thank you for your thoughts. I absolutely know a lot about a fib, and I know of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy but didn't connect the two! Funny - one of the case studies I found identified the patient's history of exercise as a predominant factor in developing A Fib at a young age.
Specializes in Assistant Professor, Nephrology, Internal Medicine.
I've also read case studies of caffeine abuse being implicated in patients whom were predisposed to tachyarrhythmias as young adults. Those are extreme cases though.
If she hasn't already seen one, it may prove beneficial to see a really good Electrophysiologist that specializes in diagnosis treatment of cardiac arrhythmias.
Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN
2,369 Posts
I haven't been able to find anything other than some case studies. I'm usually pretty decent in my search engine game but I kept coming up with CHD, which is not the case here.
And, yes, I did become frustrated with my results and then used my "secondary google (AKA allnurses search) to find some info. When that yielded little, I started this topic. So I know you're right.