Pulse test for heart fault set to be rolled out

An expert group has recommended that doctors carry out the pulse checks to identify the condition early and provide treatment.

At the same time a UK-wide health committee has been considering whether a full AF screening programme should be recommended to the NHS.

Last night, the Scottish Government said it would study the committee's advice before deciding whether to proceed with a screening programme.

In the meantime, campaigners urged doctors to take action themselves and carry out checks on at-risk patients.

A meeting led by Labour MSP Helen Eadie, convener of the Cross Party Group on Heart and Stroke, recently considered the treatment of AF in Scotland and made a series of recommendations to improve services. Trudie Lobban, chief executive of the Atrial Fibrillation Association, said: "We are calling for routine pulse checks, especially in flu clinics because more people aged over 64 are at risk of suffering AF.

"We also want it to become routine when you go to your doctor, regardless of why you are going."

Lobban said these kind of simple checks did not happen at the moment.

"It is something that is so simple. We know that smoking is bad for you, we know our blood pressure, we know our cholesterol and we have taken charge of that. Being aware of your pulse is the same."

An irregular pulse could be a sign of AF. Patients diagnosed with the condition could be given drugs to thin the blood and reduce the risk of stroke, while some have a treatment known as catheter ablation to treat the problem.

Former prime minister Tony Blair had this kind of therapy in 2004 after being diagnosed with the heart rhythm problem supraventricular tachycardia.

The Atrial Fibrillation Vision Meeting heard that patients diagnosed with AF in Scotland took up almost half a million NHS bed days in 2008, at a cost of 155 million, as well as using 70,000 GP visits.

The condition, which affects around 10 per cent of people over 65, increases the risk of stroke by five times.