It can last for less than two days (called acute atrial fibrillation), or it can come and go. It may last for a long time (chronic atrial fibrillation).

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Lip GYH.
Atrial fibrillation (recent onset).
Clinical Evidence. 2005; 14: 71-89.

 

 

 

 

 

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Your heart has four main parts (called chambers). The two smaller chambers at the top of your heart are called the left atrium and the right atrium. Blood enters your heart by flowing into these top chambers, which pump it onwards into the two bigger, lower chambers.

The two lower chambers of your heart are called the left ventricle and the right ventricle. Their job is to pump blood out of your heart and around your body.

The right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs and the left ventricle pumps blood to the rest of the body.

The top-right chamber of your heart (right atrium) contains a control area (the pacemaker), which sends an electrical signal to make the muscles in the heart contract to push the blood through it.

If you have atrial fibrillation, the pacemaker sends out too many electrical signals at once. This makes the muscles of right atrium and left atrium contract far too fast, and means that the ventricles then pump blood out in an irregular way. This results in a very fast, irregular heart beat.

Some people are more likely to have atrial fibrillation than others. For example, men are one and a half times more likely to get it than women.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Kannel WB, Wolf PA, Benjamin EJ, et al.
Prevalence, incidence, prognosis, and predisposing conditions for atrial fibrillation: population-based estimates.
American Journal of Cardiology. 1998; 82: 2-9.

 

 

 

 

 

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Other things that can increase your risk of atrial fibrillation are:

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Freestone B, Lip GYH.
Epidemiology and costs of cardiac arrhythmias.
In: Lip GYH, Godtfredsen J (editors). Cardiac arrhythmias: a clinical approach. Mosby, Edinburgh, UK; 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

³

Atrial fibrillation is different to ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation is a dangerous emergency that affects the main chambers of the heart (the ventricles). To read more about ventricular fibrillation, see What is a cardiac arrest?

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