ABSTRACT
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia seen in clinical practice, and permanent or intermittent AF afflicts about 4% of the population (1-6). The prevalence of AF is increasing, resulting in part from the increase in the mean age of the population as well as the increase in the survival of patients with heart disease, especially those with heart failure. Although AF is frequently associated with atrial enlargement and ventricular dysfunction of any cause, it also occurs in the absence of any structural heart disease. However, regardless of the presence or absence of heart disease, AF has importance clinically because affected patients have an increased mortality; they are also at an increased risk for deterioration in hemodynamics due to the rapid and irregular heart rate, progressive dysfunction of the left atrium and left ventricle, and for embolic events resulting from left atrial and left atrial appendiceal thrombi (7,8).
