Here are some of the recommended web sites if you are interested in further information:

• UCSF Cardiology http://cardiology.ucsf.edu/
• American Heart Association www.americanheart.org
• American Medical Association www.ama-assn.org
• American College of Cardiology www.acc.org

As the recognition of the deleterious health effects of atrial fibrillation grows, standard therapy is being reconsidered, and new therapies are being developed. The goal of the UCSF Atrial Arrhythmia Center, through basic and clinical research, is to fill the large void in our knowledge about patient-specific factors that lead to atrial fibrillation, and ways in which those factors might be beneficially altered on a patient-by-patient basis. As a patient, you can benefit from the efforts of our physicians at the Atrial Arrhythmia Center who are devoted to rapidly bringing new research insights to improvements in patient care.

Doctors from UCSF have been pioneers in developing expertise in the assessment of the heart's conduction systems, studying arrhythmias under controlled conditions with electrophysiology studies. We develop and participate in clinical trials with the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and pharmaceutical and device companies to discover better treatments. This works to your advantage - many of the new investigative devices and medications that may be more effective than the traditional treatments could be available to you at UCSF.

At the UCSF Atrial Arrhythmia Center, there are many investigative protocols in progress for new procedures and devices for treating atrial fibrillation. We will work closely with your primary internist or cardiologist to find the best way to manage your atrial fibrillation.

This website would not have been possible without the devotion of the medical and administrative staffs of the UCSF Section of Cardiac Electrophysiology . In particular, we wish to thank the UCSF electrophysiology fellows and students for their input, especially John Kuruvilla and Peter Guerra, M.D. The electrophysiology faculty physicians and nursing staff were an important part of this effort and an essential part of our team of caregivers.

We wish to acknowledge Starr Kaplan, medical illustrator and Kevin Barnard, graphic designer.

We also wish to thank Medtronic, Inc., for their very kind and generous support for the UCSF Atrial Arrhythmia Center in its mission of research, education, and clinical care. They can be contacted at www.medtronic.com.

Finally, we are exceedingly grateful to our patients whose many very relevant questions generated the substance of and motivation for not only this booklet, but much of our clinical and investigative efforts.