According to the study, Mayo clinic physician researchers explored and confirmed the presence of a genetic mutation that clearly established an inherited predisposition to atrial fibrillation.
The authors of the study published their findings in the February issue of Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine.
"Why certain patients develop atrial fibrillation while others do not, despite comparable environmental stress exposure, might ultimately depend on their genetic makeup," the authors write.
An arrhythmia or an irregular heartbeat can be caused by coronary artery disease, electrolyte imbalances in the blood, injuries from heart attack, or healing after heart surgery. Atrial fibrillation is a very common irregular heart rhythm that causes the atria, the upper chambers of the heart to contract abnormally.
According to Medicine.Net a normal heart rate is 50 to 100 beats per minute. Arrhythmias and abnormal heart rates don't necessarily occur together. Health officials say arrhythmias can occur with a normal heart rate or with heart rates that are slow (called bradyarrhythmias -- less than 60 beats per minute). Arrhythmias can also occur with rapid heart rates (called tachyarrhythmias -- faster than 100 beats per minute).
Atrial fibrillation is usually seen in the elderly who have underlying structural heart disease. However in this recent study researchers are focused on the gene-based form of atrial fibrillation that affects younger people who do not otherwise have risk factors for the disease.
The discovery of the genetic mutation's role in contributing to atrial fibrillation may hopefully have the added benefit in improving physicians' ability to identify patients who have a hereditary predisposition to atrial fibrillation. The ailment is often complicated by increased risk for stroke and heart failure.
"Our findings support the emerging understanding of atrial fibrillation in younger patients as an inherited disease of ion channels, the building blocks of electrical pathways," says Timothy Olson, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist and lead author of the study.
In the United States more than 850,000 people are hospitalized for an arrhythmia each year.
