Right atrium monophasic action potentials during atrial flutter and fibrillation in man

Monophasic action potentials recorded in two patients with atrial flutter and one patient with atrial fibrillation showed a nonuniform depolarization of the right atrial wall. In each of the two patients with atrial flutter, there was a site where two separate action potential deflections were recorded for each flutter wave. It was supposed that this was the site of re-entry for a cycling wavelet subsidiary to the main flutter wave. In the patient with atrial fibrillation, three types of electric atrial activity were found: regular activity at 180 per minute similar to that found in flutter, small irregular activity at a rate of 400 per minute, and a mixed type of the former two. The significance of these findings for the mechanism of atrial flutter and fibrillation is discussed.