British Journal of General Practice, May 1997 285 Original papers

Background. The management of atrial fibrillation (AF) has changed substantially in recent years, especially with a greater appreciation of the prophylactic role of antithrombotic therapy against stroke. There is therefore a need for further information on the prevalence of AF in Britain, the prevalence of (and con-traindications to) anticoagulant treatment, and the factors that influence doctors ’ decisions in treating AF, including the investi-gation of patients with this arrhythmia. Aim. To investigate the prevalence, clinical features and manage-ment of patients with AF in a general practice setting. Method. Cross-sectional survey of patients using treatment pre-scriptions and clinical records in two general practices from the west of Birmingham (serving a patient population of 16 519) where 4522 subjects (27.4%) were aged x50 years. Results. One hundred and eleven (2.4%) patients who wer