<International Circulation>: What is the current situation regarding AF in terms of disease burden and etiology?

    Dr Le Heuzey : It is clear that atrial fibrillation is becoming one of the major topics in arrhythmology， cardiology， and even in medicine in general. In a lot of countries， the proportion of patients is around 1% of the total population， which is a huge number of patients..

  《国际循环》：房颤的疾病负担和病因学研究的现状如何？
    Heuzey教授：显然，房颤目前已经成为心律失常学、心脏病学乃至医学研究的主要问题之一。我们知道很多国家的房颤患病率达到1%，因此这是很大的患者群。

    <International Circulation>: Have there been any updates or alterations in the current ESC guidelines for strategies for prevention of AF?

    Dr Le Heuzey : Yes， when we updated the guidelines one of the objectives was to put AF in the landscape of cardiac diseases because it is clear that most patients with AF have a lot of comorbidities， such as hypertension， heart failure， etc. That was the first goal—to make sure that AF is not an isolated disease but to put it into perspective with all the other cardiac diseases. The second goal was to attempt to give a better evaluation of the risk and risk stratification for thromboembolism. Unfortunately， although new and interesting antithrombotic drugs are arriving， the first of these drugs called dabigatran still does not have market authorization in the U.S. and Europe. Therefore， it was not possible to put it inside the recommendations but you will find it in the text.

   《国际循环》：ESC的房颤指南中有哪些更新?
     Heuzey教授：是的，我们更新了指南。首要目标是将房颤置于整个心血管疾病当中，因为目前我们清楚大多数房颤患者都有其他并存疾病。比如高血压、动脉粥样硬化等。这是首要目标，即不是将房颤作为一个孤立的疾病，而是将房颤与其他心血管疾病联系起来看待。第二个目标就是更好地评估发生血栓栓塞事件的危险并进行危险分层。大家知道，新型抗凝药物很吸引人，正在不断被研发出来。不幸的是，第一个新型抗凝药物达比加群还没有在美国和欧洲上市，因此不能在指南中推荐该药，不过指南中提及了达比加群。