ABSTRACT

Background: Myocardial infraction (MI) is a result of decreased or totally ceased flow of blood to a portion of myocardium. It is also known as heart attack. MI may also remain silent resulting into sudden death. Majority of MI has an underlying coronary artery disease. Due to occlusion of coronary artery, supply of oxygen to the myocardium is hampered. Most common cardiac rhythm disorder is called atrial fibrillation (AF).

Aim: To determine the frequency of atrial fibrillation within 48 hours of acute myocardial infarction among patients presenting to a tertiary care hospital.

Design: It was a cross sectional study.

Study settings: The study was conducted at the Department of Cardiology, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar from 17/12/2018 to 16/6/2019.

Methods: A total of 205 patients were observed. Data regarding name, age, gender and duration of symptoms of MI was collected from all included patients. All patients were underwent history taking regarding symptoms and duration of symptoms, followed by physical examination including pulse, BP and cardiac auscultation, blood tests including complete blood count, cardiac enzymes and serum electrolytes, 12 lead ECG with cardio fax machine and echocardiography with Toshiba CD70 machine to full fill inclusion and exclusion criteria. The cohort was followed up till 48th hour with serial ECGs and pulse recordings for development of new onset atrial fibrillation. Frequency of new onset AF was noted.

Results: In this study mean age of the patients was 53 years with SD ±11.23. From total 68% patients were male while 32% patients were female. More over 7% patients had atrial fibrillation while 93% patients did not had atrial fibrillation.

Conclusion: Our study concluded that the frequency of atrial fibrillation within 48 hours was 7% among patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction.

Keywords: Acute myocardial infarction, Atrial fibrillation (AF).