In no case of auricular fibrillation is the heart muscle free from extensive fibrous changes.
It has been shown that hearts at the time of death at times enter a state of fibrillation of the ventricles and that cases of sudden death may be due to this condition.
It is the general consensus of opinion that auricularfibrillation may persist for months or even years.
If that is true, then auricular fibrillation may last for many years.
Electrocardiogram showing auricular fibrillationin Leads I (upper) and II (middle and lower).
Ventricular Fibrillation= Ventricular fibrillation as its name implies, is fibrillation of the ventricle analogous to that of the auricle, but the condition is rarely observed as it is incompatible with life.
Though disputed, it seems probable that fibrillation may be caused by the excessive use of tea, coffee and tobacco.
There is always a certain amount of heart block associated with auricular fibrillation so that not all of the auricular stimuli pass through the bundle of His.
At times auricular fibrillation is only a passing symptom, and is rapidly cured by treatment.
Both auricular fibrillation and auricular flutter may be temporary or permanent, and the exact number of fibrillations or tremblings of the auricular muscle can be noted only by electrical instruments.
A real auricular fibrillation shows a semiparalysis of the auricles, and during this condition normal systolic contractions do not occur, although there are small rapid twitchings of different muscle fibers in the auricles.
Rarely this fibrillation may be caused by some of the drugs used to stimulate the heart.
If the fibrillation occurs with or was apparently caused by the dilatation of the ventricles, the prognosis of improvement may be good.
When ventricular fibrillation occurs, the condition is serious and the prognosis bad.
If on account of some heart strain or some unaccountable cause the fibrillation recurs, he of course must again receive the digitalis.
He still further advises in auricular fibrillation an injection of atropin before digitalis has been administered, and another after digitalis is thoroughly acting.
The irregular pulse in auricular fibrillation is more or less distinctive, being generally rapid, from 110 upward.
A permanent fibrillation is worse than a paroxysmal state.
Fibrillation and heart block are grave conditions when found in pregnancy, but disease of the mitral valve because of frequency is more important, and when compensation is unstable mitral lesions are dangerous.
In auricular fibrillation there are rapid incoordinate contractions, twitchings in individual muscle bundles of the auricular wall.
In the Mayo Clinic the operative mortality in seventy cases of exophthalmic goitre with auricular fibrillation was only 2.
The common type of lesion is a dry arthritis with fibrillation and eburnation of the articular surfaces.
This fibrillation is foreshadowed in the contractile regions of many Protozoa, e.
In some cases a distinct fibrillation of the cytoplasm accompanies or precedes the appearance of the cell-secretion (Mathews, pancreas cell of Amphibia).
Even in periods of repose there is a certain amount of fibrillation on that side.
In the middle, however, of one, my son saw under a high power a few corpuscles, with traces of fibrillation in the surrounding transparent matter.
