Click here to get Acrobat Reader. Besides palpitations, symptoms of atrial fibrillation often include shortness of breath, and fatigue.
Doctors typically treat it with drugs or electricity to restore a normal heart rhythm.
In cases where this initial treatment has failed, a new variation on an old treatment is being used to stop the heart from fluttering. Drug companies are delaying generic versions of expensive medicines, say senators who introduced a plan Tuesday to make it harder for drug makers to hold on to brand-name patents. New medical privacy rules give the federal government unfettered access to personal records, says a Republican leader who's asking the Bush administration to retool the regulations. Physicians equated a patient's death with a doctor's failure. To help avoid dangerous product interactions, several area pharmacy chains, including CVS and Giant, are asking consumers to fill out profiles detailing all the herbs and drugs they take.