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The findings of a pilot study, presented last week at the annual Primary Care Cardiovascular Society (PCCS) scientific meeting in Chester, showed that targeting a typical flu clinic of 350 patients over the age of 65 uncovered six cases of undiagnosed AF.

Currently, there is no national screening programme for AF, but NICE does recommend checking for an irregular pulse.

Lead researcher Delyth Williams, a practice nurse in Bedfordshire, said: 'We offered patients the chance to have their pulse monitored by a nurse when they attended for flu jabs.

'The older a patient gets the more likely they are to have AF. A lot of elderly patients who come in for flu jabs will have co-morbidities. We put posters and leaflets in the waiting room to inform patients, and most were happy to have their pulse taken. Overall, we identified 19 patients with suspected AF, of which six patients had AF.'

This increased the prevalence on the practices' AF register by 3.6 per cent, she said, and is a low-cost, low technology way to pick up more cases of AF.

'We are now developing a local enhanced service to encourage practices to take up the scheme,' she said.

Dr Terry McCormack, former chair of the PCCS, said: 'Taking pulse rate is straightforward. If there is an irregular pulse then the patient should be booked in for an ECG test to determine if they have AF.

'If you are picking up six cases of AF during a flu clinic that could potentially prevent three strokes.'

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