摘要Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most emphasized issues in the past two decades. But till now, we really know little about its mechanisms. The three classical theories about AF mechanism could not totally eluci-date the occurrence and development of AF. The remodeling theory including structural and electrical remodeling was used to interpret the pathological course. Based on patch-clamp studies, kinetics of a lot of ion channels such as potassium, calcium, sodium channel were involved in the development of AF. But the change of single channel can not explain the whole aspects of electrical remodeling and also can not explain the interaction of multichannels and microcosmic circumstance. Autonomic nervous system seems to play an important role in AF, but its real effects were still controversial. Gene research of familial AF and gene therapy of AF were emerged in recent years. More efforts will be put on the mutated gene and provide candidates for gene therapy. One paper on this issue writ-ten by HUANG Cong-xin, ZHANG Shu, MA Chang-sheng et al, on behalf of the working group of Chinese society of pacing and Electrophysiology, is worthy to read carefully[1]. The highlights of AF therapeutics were focus on non-drug therapies, especially on radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA). RFCA may be the most promise therapy to cure AF. Now, there are several kinds of RFCA including CPVI, SPVI, CFAE ablation, Ganglion plex ablation and stepwise ablation[15-20]. The most accepted methods is CPVI with or without extension. The success rates of RF-CA is still not satisfied[1,15,17-18,20-21]. The other question we encountered in RFCA is how to improve and optimize procedures and techniques[1,15,17-18,20-21]. Also, a lot of attention is paid to drug therapy of AF[1]. Dronedarone was supposed to replace anmiodarone with less side-effects and more efficient. Unfortunately, the clinical data did not support the hypothesis. The investigation of new anti-coagulant meets the same embarrassment. Ximelagatran could not get into market because of its hepatic toxicity[1]. In conclusion, there are only a little achievements regarding AF. There are still many hard tasks to be deal with in AF area.

abstracts@@ 目前对心房颤动(房颤)的研究已经在各个层面展开,从基因到通道蛋白、从细胞器到大体解剖、从电生理到组织结构、从入心大静脉到心房特殊结构、从心房神经节丛到各种体液因子的影响、从药物治疗到非药物治疗,各个领域都有一批学者在执着地深入研究.