Drivers of Atrial Fibrillation: Theoretical Considerations and Practical Concerns

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms responsible for driving AF is key to improving the procedural success for AF ablation. In this review, we look at some of the proposed drivers of AF, the disagreement between experts and the challenges confronted in attempting to map AF. Defining a ‘driver’ is also controversial, but for the purposes of this review we will consider an AF driver to be either a focal or localised source demonstrating fast, repetitive activity that propagates outward from this source, breaking down in to disorganisation further away from its origin.