[German Competence Network on Atrial Fibrillation (AFNET). A nationwide cooperation for better research and patient...

The Atrial Fibrillation Competence Network is an interdisciplinary national research network funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The aim of the network--founded in 2003--is to improve the treatment of atrial fibrillation, the most common clinically important arrhythmia of the heart. A decentralized patient registry has been established. This registry, which comprises the manifestation, diagnostics and therapy of atrial fibrillation in Germany, is being used as a data basis for epidemiologic clinical studies. Epidemiologic projects are being conducted to study, e.g., the prevalence of atrial fibrillation as well as the occurrence of complications. Four multicenter clinical trials have been started to optimize pharmacological treatments (ANTIPAF trial, Flec-SL trial), preventive pacing (BACE-PACE trial) and catheter-based ablation (GAP-AF trial). Other clinical projects are being conducted to study the risk of neurologic complications and to develop new diagnostic imaging techniques. Experimental basic research projects are focusing on different aspects of atrial remodeling in order to find out in which way the molecular mechanisms can be manipulated by new methods of treatment. First results are presented.