[Epidemiology and prognosis of atrial fibrillation in Japanese population].

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the common arrhythmias encountered in general practice as well as in the field of cardiology. AF could be responsible for increased mortality and various morbidities including clinical symptoms, impaired cardiac function and thromboembolism. An epidemiological study showed that prevalence of AF increased with the aging of the population and that the increase became striking after 60 years of age, affecting approximately 4 % in men and 2 % in women aged 80 years or more. Rhythm control with antiarrhythmic drugs and/or catheter ablation could not fully prevent AF reccurence. Understanding the epidemiology, risk factors, clinical course and prognosis of AF is very important to management of AF.