Introduction
Atrial fibrillation is a relatively common disease, which in many cases is completely asymptomatic. Those affected do not notice the disease at all. It is therefore often a random finding in the ECG. Symptoms occur mainly when the heart beats too fast or too slowly during atrial fibrillation, but can also occur during atrial fibrillation with a normal heart rate (normofrequency atrial fibrillation). General information on this topic can be found here: Atrial Fibrillation
All symptoms
- Tachycardia
- Heart Stumbling
- Pressure on the chest
- Shortness of breath
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling of unease
- Anxiety
- Sweating
- Restricted physical resilience
- Swindle
Irregular heartbeat
Atrial fibrillation is defined by an irregular heartbeat. This causes an electrical excitation in the area of the atrium that is not normally present and which throws the heart out of rhythm. The sinus node, which is normally the clock of the heart rhythm, is, so to speak, bypassed.
Atrial fibrillation is therefore defined by an irregular heartbeat with no so-called P-wave in the ECG. This wave always occurs when normal atrial fibrillation occurs via the sinus rhythm. This is no longer the case with atrial fibrillation.
Many people do not even notice the irregular heartbeat. Often it only becomes noticeable when the heart beats too fast or too slow. This can then be shown by a feeling of palpitations or dizziness.
Atrial fibrillation is seldom noticed as a heart stumbling, much more often the feeling of heart stumbling occurs with extra beats in the atrium, which many healthy people have from time to time. It then feels as if the heart misses a beat or beats twice too fast in a row. Even if patients with atrial fibrillation do not always notice the irregularity of the heartbeat, they can check it.
They can do this by measuring the pulse. To do this, the index and middle fingers are placed on the area directly below the ball of the thumb. This is where the pulse of the radial artery is normally felt. With atrial fibrillation, there is no regular throbbing here, but a disordered, arrhythmic pulse.
