{"id":3513,"date":"2023-08-21T19:59:16","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T19:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=3513"},"modified":"2023-08-22T17:43:03","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T17:43:03","slug":"afib-stroke-risk-reduction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/afib-stroke-risk-reduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Stroke Risk Reduction for Heart Valve &#038; Atrial Fibrillation Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/atrial-fibrillation\/\">Atrial fibrillation<\/a> is the most common abnormal heart rhythm diagnosed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to 6.1 million people have atrial fibrillation in the United States alone.<\/p>\n<p>Also known as AFib, atrial fibrillation can lead to severe and sometimes fatal complications from blood clots, heart failure and\u2026 stroke. According to the American Heart Association, patients with Afib are 5 times more likely to have a stroke. Unfortunately, heart valve disease increases the likelihood that patients will develop atrial fibrillation by 35%. The good news is that both heart valve disease and atrial fibrillation are treatable conditions during one operation, known as a concomitant procedure.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about atrial fibrillation, heart valve disease, treatment options, and a new clinical trial designed to minimize stroke risk, we met with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/a> at the Mitral Conclave Conference in New York City. Dr. McCarthy is the Executive Director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago and has performed thousands of cardiac surgeries, including more than 5,000 heart valve procedures. In our community, Dr. McCarthy has successfully treated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">over 175 heart valve patients.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/huMFWydNkmo?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About AFib &amp; Stroke Risk<\/h2>\n<p>Here are key insights shared by Dr. McCarthy during our interview:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Atrial fibrillation is very common in patients with mitral valve disease. \u201cWhen your valve leaks or if it\u2019s tight, the pressures in the left atrium (the upper heart chambers) are very high. The high pressures cause the chambers to stretch out, and that\u2019s what causes atrial fibrillation,\u201d says Dr. McCarthy. \u201cInstead of beating, the atria are just quivering, which causes blood clots to form, which could cause a stroke.\u201d Patients with these blood clots must go on a blood thinner to help prevent a stroke because the clots formed in the heart from atrial fibrillation are usually large and often fatal or seriously debilitating.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/profileImages\/195_129_152.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Patrick McCarthy\" width=\"129\" height=\"152\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Only about 60% of patients in the United States, and sometimes less worldwide, receive surgical treatment for atrial fibrillation. However, Dr. McCarthy treats 100% of his patients with atrial fibrillation. \u201cJim Cox, who invented the <strong>Cox-Maze Procedure,<\/strong> works with me at Northwestern. We use this procedure, which is an ablation, to ablate or eliminate the area where atrial fibrillation begins. This reduces the chance that patients will go back into AFib,\u201d says Dr. McCarthy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3566 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/maze-procedure-dr-patrick-mccarthy.jpg\" alt=\"Maze Procedure\" width=\"650\" height=\"361\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>left atrial appendage<\/strong> is the most common site for blood clots to form when a patient is in atrial fibrillation. Dr. McCarthy emphasized how important it is to close that area during ablation to reduce the risk of stroke.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3567 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/left-atrial-appendage-fibrillation.jpg\" alt=\"Left Atrial Appendage\" width=\"650\" height=\"363\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clinical trials are evaluating therapies that may reduce stroke risk. \u201cA new study called <a href=\"https:\/\/classic.clinicaltrials.gov\/ct2\/show\/NCT01561651\">LAAOS III Clinical Trial<\/a> is about patients that have atrial fibrillation and are going through heart valve surgery, coronary bypass, or any kind of open-heart operation. During the study, patients were followed for a year. They closed the left atrial appendage on half of them and reduced the risk of stroke by 35%. If a patient is listening to this and they have atrial fibrillation and going in for open heart surgery, they should be having a discussion with their doctor about treating it while they\u2019re there,\u201d said Dr. McCarthy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3568 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/laaos-clinical-trial-iii-afib.jpg\" alt=\"LAAOS-Clinical-Trial-Atrial-Fibrillation\" width=\"650\" height=\"364\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dr. McCarthy believes the key takeaway for patients with atrial fibrillation having surgery to repair or replace a valve is to have them both fixed simultaneously. \u201cWhat I tell patients is if it\u2019s broken when we\u2019re working under the hood, we\u2019re just going to fix it whatever it is. If they have atrial fibrillation, it doesn\u2019t add much to the surgery these days to treat it, and the data is more evident it has a long-term benefit. It\u2019s the gift that keeps on giving,\u201d Dr. McCarthy said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. McCarthy and Northwestern Medicine!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our patient community, many thanks to Dr. Patrick McCarthy for sharing his knowledge and expertise about atrial fibrillation, heart valve disease, and the treatment options available to help reduce stroke risk. We also need to thank the Northwestern Medicine team for continuing to take great care of heart valve and atrial fibrillation patients.<\/p>\n<p>Related Links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">See Dr. Patrick McCarthy\u2019s Interactive Surgeon Profile<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/atrial-fibrillation\/\">Patient Education Microsite: Atrial Fibrillation &amp; Heart Valve Disease<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"class_list":["post-3513","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-atrial-fibrillation-afib"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3513"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3590,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3513\/revisions\/3590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}