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The first step is simply to find out if you have AF. If you don\u2019t, then you don\u2019t have to worry about it. That\u2019s not to say that it\u2019s impossible to have palpitations or fainting or a stroke from something other than AFib. But if you don\u2019t have AF then your chances of having any of those things is much lower. The main way to check if someone has AF is to check either their ECG, which measures the electrical activity of the heart and can see if the electrical activity is normal or fibrillatory, or to check the pulse and see if its irregular. If and ECG shows normal synchronized electrical activity or if the pulse is regular, then you don\u2019t have AF. The trouble with AF is that it can come and go. In other words, the electrical system of the heart can be normal sometimes and disorganized\/fibrillatory at other times. We call this paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. A paroxysm is just a fancy word that means an episode. Paroxysmal AF is just the medical term for episodic AF. The trouble with that is that just because your pulse is regular at the time you check it, it might not be regular at other times when you\u2019re not checking it. And even with paroxysmal AF, or PAF, there is still a chance of having a blood clot in the atrium and therefore a stroke. This means that when someone is suspected of having AF or PAF, they must be monitored for a very long time. Usually people are monitored for either an entire day, sometimes an entire week or two. Sometimes people need to be monitored even longer, up to even a few years.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t