Symptoms of Atrial Fibrillation
About 30% of people with AF have no symptoms and it is discovered by chance.
Most people will experience a combination of the following symptoms:
- Palpitation (a feeling that your heart is racing, going faster than normal or beating in an irregular way)
- Shortness of breath
- Lethargy
- Dizzy spells or fainting
- Chest pain
- Symptoms of stroke (transient or permanent weakness to one side of the body, speech or visual impairment).
Rarer Symptoms may include:
- Irritability and being short tempered
- Difficulty with relationships with friends and family
- Excessive sweating
- Indigestion or abdominal upset
- A tendency to pass of lot of urine, particularly in the first few hours after the AF starts
Signs of AF
These are the features of AF discovered when a health professional examines you. A rapid and irregular pulse is the commonest sign of AF and is usually the way in which it is discovered in people without any symptoms.
