In-Vivo Models of Atrial Fibrillation

For decades the dominant interest of electrophysiologists has been arrhythmias of ventricular origin. Because of their life-threatening nature, diagnosis and treatment of ventricular arrhythmias always has been high on the list of important problems in basic and clinical electrophysiological research. For several reasons during the last decade atrial fibrillation (AF) has attracted the interest of an increasing number of cardiologists, physiologists and pharmacologists (Fig. 1). Firstly, both incidence and prevalence of AF are increasing. At present, the prevalence in the European Union approaches 1%. In elderly people (>75 years) the prevalence exceeds 8% (Benjamin et al. 1994) and with further ageing of our population it is expected to increase even further (Benjamin et al. 1998). Also, successful treatment of ventricular arrhythmias may have turned attention to the remaining challenges in arrhythmia management.