The best of arrhythmias in 2001

Among the classic problems of rhythmology, which can be classified topographically into atria] rhythm disturbances, junctional rhythm disturbances and ventricular rhythm disturbances, it is certainly the atrial rhythm disorders, including atrial fibrillation, which constitute the "final frontier". Population aging comes with an indisputable increase in the incidence of this arrhythmia, which poses not only classic therapeutic problems (is it better to correct the fibrillation or to be content with slowing it) but also new ones (pulmonary vein tissue ablation for example). It is still very difficult to make a choice among the quantity of ideas and new techniques proposed in rhythmology. From the publications appearing in 2001 in the New England Journal of Medecine, the leading clinical journal, we contemplate topical issues this year concerning three principle subjects : the treatment of atrial fibrillation yet again, arrhythmias of genetic origin, and ventricular rhythm disturbances in the era of the implantable defibrillator.