‘Mystery’ 50% Spike in Heart Arrhythmia Puts 1 in 45 At Risk of Stroke

There has been an “astonishing” increase in the number of people with atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeats, or heart arrhythmia) since 2013.

A British Heart Foundation analysis of data from Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has put the number of people with atrial fibrillation, the most common type of heart arrhythmia, at over 1.5 million for the first time, with fears that around 270,000 more people also have the condition but are undiagnosed.

Even without these hundreds of thousands of suspected cases, the 1.5 million figure means that somewhere around one in every 45 people in Britain have the condition, putting them at risk of blood clots that could cause debilitating or even deadly strokes.

“A Quite Astonishing Rise”

“These figures show a quite astonishing rise in the number of people diagnosed with atrial fibrillation,” said Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, the British Heart Foundation’s medical director, in comments reported by Comcast-owned Sky News.