Atrial Fibrillation Awareness – How do we tackle a global epidemic?

Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, Andrea Natale


Dear colleagues

Welcome to the Fall issue of the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation. Thank you for your fight against the global epidemic of Atrial Fibrillation (AF). September was the AF month with several activities organized all over the world. There were educational lectures, awareness walks, yoga sessions and many other activities to raise the AF awareness in the community. A lot of you have been part of this mission with single goal of eliminating AF.

Congratulations are to the Global AF Alliance (GAFA) Foundation, Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) and ACC for launching a very effective AF awareness campaign last month It takes unfettered commitment from all fronts to fight this 21st century epidemic.

While our understanding of AF and its maladies continue to get better the tools to manage them are slowly but steadily improved. AF ablation remains a very important tool in out therapeutic armamentarium. Our ability to tackle non-paroxysmal AF has been limited. In addition to the pulmonary vein isolation several adjunctive strategies have been tested and failed. Complex fractionated electrograms, linear lines, rotor ablation and more have been tried without much success. Our ability to understand the pathophysiology and substrate evolution with the progressive AF will remain the next best hope. Several new options in the form of left atrial appendage (LAA) occluders for anticoagulation eligible high-risk patients have proven to be very promising. The explosion of patient driven diagnostics include Apple Watch have opened gates to the data deluge that we need to figure out now. Like with many other disruptive technologies we need to figure out how to utilize them effectively identifying processes that will continue to improve patient care.

This issue of the journal has several interesting original and review articles worth spending time on. We once again appreciate your support to the journal and look forward to your contributions to the field. Another big announcement is that I will be signing off as the chief editor of the journal starting November 2018. Dr. DJ Lakkireddy will take over as the next Editor-in-Chief for JAFIB. Dr. Lakkireddy has been the associate editor for all these years and has vast experience in running the journal. There will be a significant revamp in the structure and platform. Your continued support is much appreciated.

Best wishes




Dhanunjaya (DJ)Lakkireddy MD, FACC, FHRS Associate Editor JAFIB



Andrea Natale MD, FACC, FHRS, FESC Editor-in-Chief JAFIB