To know the exact prevalence and prognosis of atrial fibrillation from a clinical survey—Comments on the “The Fushimi AF Registry”

Atrial fibrillation (AF) has a rich history. Probably the earliest description of chaotic irregularity of the pulse is Chinese, in The Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine. In recorded history, William Harvey reported “auricular fibrillation” of animals in 1628. Owing to the invention of the electrocardiogram by Willem Einthoven in 1903, Sir Thomas Lewis recorded clear f waves of AF and established it as a clinical entity. During the past 100 years, there has been an explosion of research into various fields of the mechanisms (ectopic focus vs.