Abstract
Atrial flutter (AFL) and atrial fibrillation (AF) are frequently associated. Both are reentrant tachycardias; AFL is usually a stable macroentrant tachycardia with defined boundaries of areas with functional or anatomical block, whereas AF is a multiwavelet reentrant tachycardia with shifting activation. It has been reported that more than 50% of patients with one of them will at some point exhibit the other arrhythmia. This can be spontaneous, secondary to medications, after ablation, or after surgical procedures. Triggers that can initiate AF, whether the pulmonary veins or other extrapulmonary foci, also trigger AFL in the setting of lines of block. These lines of block can be functional as a result of antiarrhythmic drug therapy or anatomical lines, which can be native, as in typical AFL or iatrogenic anatomical lines of block after surgery or previous ablation.
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Wazni, O., Natale, A. (2008). Insight into the Pathophysiology of Atrial Flutter and Its Relationship to Atrial Fibrillation. In: Natale, A., Jalife, J. (eds) Atrial Fibrillation. Contemporary Cardiology. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-163-5_29
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-163-5_29
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