Clinical presentations of patients with atrial fibrillation admitted at a tertiary care hospital, Bengaluru

Abstract

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common and persistent cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice, with an overall prevalence in the world is estimated to be 0.47%, but there is significant regional variation. Developing countries including India lacks data on atrial fibrillation, hence this study was conducted to study clinical presentation of patients with atrial fibrillation.
Methodology: A descriptive study was conducted to assess clinical presentation of patients with atrial fibrillation admitted in all the in-patient departments of tertiary care hospital for a period of 1 year. A pretested, semi structured questionnaire was used to interview study subjects. In this study, the minimum age of the study population with atrial fibrillation was 22 years and the maximum age was 85 years. The male to female ratio was almost equal with a slight male predominance of 33 cases (55%). The most common symptom was shortness of breath i.e. in 39(65%) patients. The prevalence of atrial fibrillation increases with age. There was no significant difference in clinical presentation between males and females. Clinical presentation such as breathlessness, orthopnoea and pedal oedema was more frequently seen in study subjects below 60 years than individuals who are 60 years and above