Kindly explain my echocardiography impression taken for arrhythmia.

Question

Hello doctor,

I have been diagnosed with heart arrhythmia and have been prescribed Xarelto and ACE inhibitor. I have had my heart re-booted via day procedure, so proper function has been restored. I would like to know why I have been prescribed Xarelto as ongoing treatment and the ACE inhibitor for only one month? Also, could you interpret this statement? He had TTE before DCCV, and an impression of mild reduction in EF with dilated cardiomyopathy given slow intrinsic rate AF, suspicious of AV nodal dysfunction. And define what questions I should be asking the treating doctors?

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

My guess is the cardiologist wants to reassess you after a month, especially regarding the response to Xarelto. Coming to the statement, in simple terms, you were assessed by the noninvasive echocardiography test i.e., TTE, after which they cardioverted your arrhythmia (most probably atrial fibrillation). But this atrial fibrillation, unlike the usual atrial fibrillation we see, is of a slow rate, which raises the suspicion that your AV node through which conduction occurs is diseased, and of course, the atrial fibrillation has been persistent enough to cause a mild decrease in the contractile function of your heart. I hope this helps.