AFib awareness: Stroke risks & advanced treatment options
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) – May is National Stroke Awareness Month, a reminder to stay informed about symptoms and prevention.
Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is a common heart rhythm disorder that is the leading cause of strokes. It creates an irregular heartbeat and increases the risk of blood clots forming in the heart. Those clots can break free, travel to the brain, and cause a stroke.
The risk of getting AFib increases with age, but anyone could develop it. Those with AFib are five times more likely to have a stroke and can experience various symptoms.
'Atrial fibrillation can be anywhere from being asymptomatic, meaning having no symptoms at all, to being in the hospital because you feel like you're having a heart attack. Some of these patients describe atrial fibrillation as, 'the big one', where they're sweaty, they're clammy, their chest hurts,' Ascension Bay Medical Center Cardiac Electrophysiologist Dr. Saeed Khaja said.
But there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. For example, smartwatches have sensors that monitor heart rate and can detect AFib. Early detection methods like this play a critical role in stroke prevention.
'The sooner you treat them, the more likely that you're going to keep it away and the less likely you're going to have a stroke,' Khaja said.
Talk to your doctor for other early detection options.
There's no cure for AFib, but there are advanced treatment options available, like pulsed field ablation.
'Pulse field, these electrical impulses that go to the heart that actually inactivate the part of the heart that causes AFib. And the best thing about it is that it does no damage to the tissue around,' Khaja said. 'Gone are the days when you just medicate and you wait till it gets bad. Now you can actually have a patient come to the lab. And I've had young people with their first or second incidence of atrial fibrillation coming to the lab and doing ablation, and now they're off of almost all medications and living a completely normal life, like it never happened.'
Ascension Sacred Heart Bay has performed the procedure on 381 patients.
For information on stroke warning signs or risk factors, click here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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