Fiducia TogetherAtrial fibrillation
Also called AF, Irregular heartbeat
An irregular heart rhythm that causes around one in five strokes. Anticoagulation prevents most of them.
Important: This page is general information, not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. If you are worried about your health or someone else's, speak to a GP, pharmacist, or call 111. In an emergency, call 999.
What it is
Atrial fibrillation is the commonest sustained heart rhythm disturbance, affecting around 1.5 million people in the UK, and an estimated 270,000 more who have it and do not know.
The upper chambers of the heart quiver rather than contracting properly. Blood pools, clots form, and a clot that travels to the brain causes a stroke. AF-related strokes are larger and more disabling than other strokes.
Here is the number that makes this worth finding: anticoagulation reduces AF-related stroke risk by around two thirds. Aspirin does not do this job, and prescribing it instead is an out-of-date practice that still happens.
Signs you might notice
Palpitations: a fluttering, racing or thumping heartbeat, sometimes in episodes.
Breathlessness, tiredness, dizziness, chest discomfort.
An irregularly irregular pulse, with no pattern to it at all. That is the finding.
Very often, nothing at all. Which is why pulse checks matter: feel the pulse at every blood pressure check, and in a care setting, feel it during routine observations.
How it can affect day-to-day life
The main daily consideration is anticoagulation: taking it reliably, understanding bleeding risk, and knowing what to do after a fall or a head injury.
Fear of bleeding leads people, and sometimes clinicians, to avoid anticoagulation in older or frailer people. That is usually the wrong call: the stroke risk in that group is higher, so the benefit is greater, and falls risk alone rarely outweighs it.
Rate control matters too. A persistently fast heart eventually causes heart failure.
Supporting someone well
Feel pulses. In anybody over 65, and especially in care settings, an irregular pulse found at a routine observation is a stroke prevented.
Take anticoagulation every day without fail. With warfarin, keep the INR checks. With DOACs, remember they are shorter acting, so a missed dose leaves someone unprotected within a day.
Have a plan for falls and head injuries on anticoagulants: a head injury on a blood thinner needs assessment even if the person seems fine.
Ask about rhythm control and ablation, particularly in younger people or where symptoms persist despite rate control.
Reduce alcohol, treat sleep apnoea and manage blood pressure. All three genuinely reduce AF burden.
Fiducia Together records pulse and rhythm at every observation and holds anticoagulation on the medication round, so a new irregular pulse becomes a referral rather than a note.
Where to get help
A GP can diagnose with an ECG and assess stroke risk with CHA2DS2-VASc. Ask what your score is and whether you are anticoagulated.
Arrhythmia Alliance and the British Heart Foundation both provide clear patient information.
New chest pain, severe breathlessness or fainting needs urgent assessment.
Tools we make that might help
These are our own products. We have put them here because they do something specific for this condition, not because every page needs a list.
Fiducia Together
Pulse and rhythm recorded at every observation, so a new irregular pulse becomes a referral.
Last reviewed 2026-08-28 by Fiducia Together · Next review due 2027-08-28
Important: This page is general information, not medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. If you are worried about your health or someone else's, speak to a GP, pharmacist, or call 111. In an emergency, call 999.