A Study of Clinical Profile of Atrial Fibrillation and Its Transthoracic Echocardiography Presentation: A Cross Sectional study at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Chennai

BACKGROUND: Atrial Fibrillation is the most commonly encountered quivering or irregular heart beat (arrhythmia) in our population, Its prevalence though less than 1 % in general population below 65 years old, its incidence and prevalence is in increasing trend. It is the most common cause of cardiac source of emboli causing complications including stroke. METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted in 100 patients with atrial fibrillation, and their clinical profile including symptoms, signs, etiololgy, and transthoracic echocardiocardiography parameters were analysed. RESULTS: Most common symptom was palpitation in our study, Out of 100 patients 77% of the people were presented with RHD and the remaining 23% of them with Non RHD etiology accounted for AF, among the 77% of the RHD group females were more about 63%,and Rheumatic MS was the most common lesion,3% of the patients presented with LA clot detected by TTE. CONCLUSION: Female patients were more common then male patients. Most common etiology was Rheumatic heart disease with Mitral stenosis. Few Patients with severe MS presented with LA clot. We detected LA Clot only in a very few patients with AF because TTE has low sensitivity of detecting LA clot.