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:

  1. Palpitation (a feeling that your heart is racing, going faster than normal or beating in an irregular way)
  2. Shortness of breath
  3. Lethargy
  4. Dizzy spells or fainting
  5. Chest pain
  6. Symptoms of stroke (transient or permanent weakness to one side of the body, speech or visual impairment).

Rarer Symptoms may include:

  1. Irritability and being short tempered
  2. Difficulty with relationships with friends and family
  3. Excessive sweating
  4. Indigestion or abdominal upset
  5. 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.