Signs of Atrial Fibrillation and Why We're Concerned

Let’s kick off this discussion with some worrisome news — the American Heart Association reports that at least 60% of adults in the United States might be affected by heart disease and stroke by 2050.

When board-certified cardiologist Dr. Satjit Bhusri hears reports like this, he and the team here at Upper East Side Cardiology prefer to focus on ways to avoid these heart disease predictions through preventive cardiology.

With that in mind, we’re going to take a closer look at one of the more common roads to heart disease — atrial fibrillation, or AFib — which currently affects about 5 million Americans. 

AFib at a glance

Under normal conditions, your heart should beat at a rate of 60 to 100 beats per minute, and these beats should be steady and keep a rhythm. When your heart rate is too fast, too slow, or irregular, it’s called an arrhythmia, and AFib is the most common type of arrhythmia.

With AFib, the upper chambers of your heart — the atria — don’t beat regularly due to electrical misfiring. Instead, they quiver (or fibrillate), which allows blood to get trapped in the atria, leaving you at far greater risk for stroke. 

Signs of AFib

AFib can come and go and can range in severity from mild to severe, which means the symptoms can, too.

Typical signs of AFib include heart palpitations where it feels like your heart is:

• Flip flopping
• Hammering or thumping in your chest
• Skipping beats
• Racing

Outside of palpitations, people with AFib can also experience:

• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Chest pain or pressure
• Shortness of breath
• Anxiety

In the early stages of AFib, these types of symptoms can come and go with exertion and, over time, become more constant.

We also want to mention that during the early stages of AFib you might not experience any symptoms at all. In fact, some of our patients are only first diagnosed during a routine visit.

Lastly, if any of these symptoms come on suddenly and they’re severe, please call 911 and get emergency care right away.

Why we’re concerned about AFib

We mentioned that AFib places you more at risk for stroke, and we want to put some numbers to this. People with AFib are 5 times more likely to have a stroke than people who don’t have the condition.

Other complications associated with AFib include heart failure, heart attack, and fainting that can lead to cardiac arrest. In other words, the complications of AFib are not minor.

The good news is that AFib is treatable, and we routinely help patients to navigate this arrhythmia. In the early stages, lifestyle changes to manage your blood pressure often work well, along with blood thinners to prevent clots from forming.

If these conservative efforts don’t remedy your AFib, we can perform an ablation or cardioversion to get the electrical firing reset. Or, you might benefit from a pacemaker to regulate the rhythm of your heart.

The first step, however, is to come see us so we can identify whether you have AFib, and if you do, determine which treatment path is best for your circumstances. To get that ball rolling, please call our New York City office on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at 212-752-3464. Or you can request an appointment online by clicking here.