Atrial Fibrillation Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Atrial Fibrillation - Article Example Possible causes that give rise to AF include comorbidities like hypertension, coronary ischemia, heart failure and obstructive sleep apnoea. The characteristic features of electrical remodelling are alterations in atrial refractoriness, atrial conduction and sinus node function. This happens very quickly and is considered possible to reverse. Loss of contractility results from the contractile remodelling that happens in AF and like electrical remodelling happens very quickly. Reduction in the release of systolic calcium ions is believed to contribute to this change. Myolysis or the loss of sarcomeres is also a likely candidate for this change. The consequences of contractile remodelling are thrombus formation and atrial dilation. Advance of AF may be caused by contractile remodelling through the coexistence of multiple wavelets. Reversing contractility changes takes longer than in the case of reversing electrical remodelling changes possible because of the time involved in the replacement of lost sarcomeres. Persistent AF has been associated with the structural changes within the atria. Many of these changes are consider ed to be irreversible. Evidence from animal studies suggests that these changes occur more slowly than the changes that occur from electrical and contractile remodelling and primarily reflect dedifferentiation. The striking changes seen in animal models are increased cell size, myolysis, and the collection of glycogen around the nucleus of the cell. From the limited data from humans there is indication that degenerative changes may occur (Cohen & Naccarelli, 2008). Management of AF is a three pronged strategy. The first is of the prongs is anticoagulation. Use of anticoagulation is guided by the CHAD scoring system set forth by the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and the European Society of cardiology. When the AF patient has any one of these

Innovation and Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Innovation and Change - Essay Example Innovations are established from both the internal and the external environment. There is need for organizations to scan the environment constantly in order to determine the threats and opportunities. Different strategic approaches to management exist. These include environment led approach and the resource based view approach. Regardless of the extent of innovation, the need for new knowledge, new markets, and new employees will have significant impact on the organization Goffin and Mitchell (2005). Hence, change has to be considered when dealing with innovation. The advancement of technology in the 21st century has resulted in increased productions in organizations. Today, the economies of scale concerns have become irrelevant. Supply surpasses demand hence increased competition, and the requirement of enhanced continuous innovation. For successful innovation process, an organization has to establish appropriate structures, processes and culture. Through this the workforce, the par tners and the customers will know what is valuable to the organization. In the whole process of innovation, the organization will be forced to make difficult and complex changes. Innovation is defined as a process in which ideas are transformed in organizations into superior processes, products or services. This process involves new ideas or reforming the existing ones. Through this, organizations are able to successfully progress, compete and distinguish themselves in the market. Most successful organizations like Google have allowed the workforce to pursue their interest of creativity. The company has become more than a search engine through innovations such as Google maps. In the current markets where the patterns of production are changing, innovation is of great significance. In the Fordist and post-Fordist development path of learning economy, the global competition is based on the dynamic principle of competitive advantage. This relies on the exploitation of the available inp uts hence continual innovation is necessary. Organizations face increased international competition, increasing deregulation in industries, increased workforce diversity, decreasing product life cycles, rapid technologies evolvement in communication and information. Turbulence in environment has resulted in changes in the information age. In such an environment, organizations have to be innovative as they face different opportunities and challenges while trying to enhance the operations in existence (Burnes, 2004). Innovation is categorised into 4Ps namely, product, process, position and paradigm. Product refers to things that are physical, while process is the way things are done or delivered. The definition of products and processes is known as positioning. Paradigm refers to viewing the world in a new aspect and living in it. Industrial laboratory and the present call centre creation are considered as innovation processes. Positioning involves re-branding a product in existence a nd giving it a different identity. An example of positioning is the changes that took place on the Lucozade drink. Initially it was known be convalescents drink. Later it was transformed to be dynamic booster for wellbeing. Paradigm change is key radical innovation. It has substantial impact in a given society. An example of this is the steam engine created during industrial revolution. It was versatile, it drove; pumps in