ABSTRACT
Atrial fibrillation (AF) contributes substantially to cardiac morbidity and mortality and is associated with an increased risk of cerebral and systemic thromboembolic events (1-3). Furthermore, AF becomes increasingly frequent with age, rising above 5% in people above age 65 (1-3). Although there is no consensus regarding the optimal treatment strategy for AF, approaches to maintaining sinus rhythm and preventing its recurrence are evolving with growing knowledge of AF mechanisms. Recently, several important studies have clearly demonstrated that the underlying mechanism of AF depends on the interplay between several factors that are categorized into substrates and triggering events (4-6).
