PAROXYSMAL ATRIAL FIBRILLATION OBSERVED ON 48 HOURS HOLTER MONITORING IN PATIENTS WITH SINUS RHYTHM ON ELECTROCARDIOGRAM

Abstract

Objectives: To find out the prevalence of undiagnosed atrial fibrillation and the risk factors associated with atrial fibrillation in patients with complaints of palpitations having normal sinus rhythm on electrocardiogram. Methodology: The descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from 1st of January 2017 to 31st of December 2020 at Department of Cardiology, Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology, Multan. All the patients presented with the complaints of palpitations for six months with normal sinus rhythm on standard 12 lead electrocardiogram were included in the study. After written informed consent, a Holter monitor was applied for 48 h. Data regarding gender, age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking, obesity, stable ischemic heart disease, valvular or nonvalvular structural heart defect and hyperthyroidism was collected on a preformed Performa for each patient. Presence of atrial fibrillation was noted on Holter monitoring. Results: Total 1891 patients were studied over the period of 4 years. The mean age of the studied population was 55.99 ±16.28 years. There was male dominance with 70.3% (n=1329) males and 29.7% (n=562) females. 12.50% (n=236) patients had been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation on Holter monitoring. Age group of patients with age more than 75 years has high burden of atrial fibrillation (31.34%). Conclusion: A large number of studied population has been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation on Holter monitoring who presented with palpitation and have normal sinus rhythm on electrocardiogram.