 Hello, I am Dr. Rajneesh Sardana. I am a senior consultant cardiology head of pacing electrophysiology at the Manipal Heart Institute in New Delhi Today, I am going to be talking about atrial fibrillation atrial fibrillation is a condition It's an electrical abnormality of the heart in which the heart rate and the pulse become irregular So when a person feels it is going to be not a regular rhythm as we usually are used to at a rate of about 70 Here it can be fast, it can be regular, it will be going haywire, jumping up and down A person may be able to appreciate his own heart beating which is going regular or it may be picked up by the cardiologist It's a condition which leads to lot of consequences which a patient may not be symptomatic but still the consequences are dire The biggest consequence which is is a stroke and the Indian Heart Rhythm Association is promoting This month has atrial fibrillation education month to promote awareness amongst general populations as it can be asymptomatic in large number of patients And the first presentation could be a stroke The stroke can be devastating with hemiparesis, paralysis of one half of the body and these can be prevented by giving newer modern medications So atrial fibrillation I will repeat is a condition in which the heart rate becomes irregular It is fast and a person can feel his own palpitations the moment he tries to walk it goes fast He can feel dizzy not feeling well and the pulse is picked up It can be because of various conditions like valvular heart disease, leeks in the mitral valve or one of the valves in the heart It can be related to thyroid abnormality, it can be related to certain deficiencies and it can also be related to hypertension and elderly It's a pretty common problem beyond 60 years of life and almost about 10% patients between 70 to 80 years of age would get atrial fibrillation As I said the biggest consequence is a stroke or paralysis of one of the body Why does it happen? Because the irregularity the heart pumping is bizarre, it's not actually pumping It is shaking or shivering which leads to clot formations in the heart and the clot can go to the brain and produce a stroke What is recommended and it's been now pretty well studied and the recommendations are pretty firm That we need to put these patients on anticoagulation which means blood thinners which means the medications which prevent clotting of the blood in the heart So to prevent clotting we give these medicines and the strokes which are usually to the tune of 5 times the normal heart rhythm patients can be decreased by about 80% with these medications So awareness of atrial fibrillation is very very important amongst patients Any person who feels that the pulse is not good, is not feeling good should consult their doctor cardiologist and better to consult a cardiac electrophysiologist Which are the rhythm specialists to look after their rhythm abnormalities The downside of these blood thinners is that there is a risk of bleeding because these patients the blood will not clot But overall out of 10 patients 9 would benefit, 1 would probably also have or less than 1 would even have a risk of bleeding But the thrust is that we should anticoagulate all patients of atrial fibrillation for preventing strokes and leading to disability in future life Thank you