{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.017890191239975324, 'fraction_numerical': 0.003701418877236274, 'mean_word_length': 5.41106719367589, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Pulmonary Vein Isolation for Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation:

Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia encountered by clinicians, with an estimated prevalence of 0.4% in the general population. Patients with nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation have a 2to 7-fold higher incidence of embolic stroke and have a mortality rate that is twice that of people in normal sinus rhythm.1 Traditional approaches to the management of atrial fibrillation include rate control and anticoagulation, chemical and electrical cardioversion, and in very symptomatic patients, AV nodal ablation and permanent pacemaker implantation. Recently, there has been much interest in more novel therapeutic approaches to atrial fibrillation, namely, catheter based mapping and ablation. The shift in focus to catheter based interventional techniques was in part inspired by the success of the surgical Maze procedure. Attempts were made to replicate the surgical Maze procedure by creating ablation lines in anatomically defined locations in both atria. The results of these catheter-based Maze procedures, however, have been disappointing. Haissaguerre et al.,2 in a seminal study, suggested that the ectopic beats originating in the pulmonary veins may be the triggers for atrial fibrillation. It seemed plausible that electrical isolation of ectopic foci originating in the pulmonary veins from rest of the atrial tissue would result in sustained cure. Over the last few years, rapid technological strides have been made in this area. This article will update the reader on recent technological advances and future directions in this field.