Ablation therapy for persistent atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common form of electrical disturbance of the heart and contributes to significant patient morbidity and mortality. With better understanding of the mechanisms of atrial fibrillation and improvements in mapping and ablation technologies, ablation has become a preferred therapy for patients with symptomatic AF. Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is the cornerstone for AF ablation therapy, but particularly in patients with AF occurring for longer than 7 days (persistent AF), identifying clinically significant non pulmonary vein targets and achieving durability of ablation lesions remain an important challenge.