Dear Colleagues
On this anniversary issue, I wanted to congratulate you and thank you for making the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation (JAFIB) a great success. With specific focus on atrial fibrillation we have been able to surpass our targets thanks to your active participation and support. With the continued progress made in the field of diagnostic and therapeutic tools for treating AF, this past year has witnessed a period of consolidation and introspection of what we have accomplished. We have come to agree that pulmonary veins are a major source of arrhythmia initiation and maintenance and should be the primary target for isolation. The role of atrial substrate modification in the form of linear atrial ablation, complex fractionated atrial electrograms, AF nests, ganglionated plexi continues to be of major interest to AF experts. Magnetic and robotic guided ablation systems have made significant inroads in the field and have been quickly integrated into AF ablation. While multi electrode radiofrequency ablation, laser and cryo balloon ablation have gained more ground on the clinical application front, single electrode radiofrequency ablation catheters have made remarkable strides with a variety of options and features. This year will see the release of more robust electroanatomic mapping systems that will enhance the accuracy and ease of arrhythmia ablations.
Patient education has been a top priority for JAIB. The “ Meet the Expert “ feature has enjoyed phenomenal patronage and has addressed the queries of hundreds of patients. On this anniversary issue we have made some substantial changes to the web interface to enhance the ease of navigation. Virtual AF clinic, procedural videos, online surveys, international AF ablation registry are some of the things that will be available for use. I take this opportunity to once again thank all the authors, reviewers, patients, editorial board and technical team members for making JAFIB such a great success. In a very short period of time, all your contributions have made JAFIB (www.jafib.com) the top online arrhythmias and cardiovascular web resource. Our goal of becoming a comprehensive online resource for atrial fibrillation is not too far away. We hope to serve you at the highest quality.
Andrea Natale MD, FACC, FHRS. Editor-in-chief JAFIB.
