摘要Atrial fibrillation is the most common clinically important cardiac arrhythmia accounting for 20％ to 25％ of strokes and is a common cause of congestive heart failure.1,2 With the aging population and changing demographics,atrial fibrillation has become an epidemic affecting 2.66 million people in the United States.The prevalence of atrial fibrillation is estimated to increase by 5 fold to 12 million by 2050.3 The diagnosis and treatment of atrial fibrillation represent a significant health care burden of $15.7 billion per year.4 Treatment of atrial fibrillation using antiarrhythmic drugs has been disappointing,while radiofrequency ablation approaches have limitations,including unclear long-term efficacy.Innovation in treatment is needed and pursuit of novel modalities of therapy requires fundamental knowledge in the molecular mechanisms that lead to atrial fibrillation,including electrical remodeling in atrial fibrillation.