[The evaluation and treatment of a patient with atrial fibrillation]

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in humans. The treatment can be one of the most difficult. It's true that AF itself it's a no-lethal arrhythmia but is often a cause of symptoms that can lead the patient to worsening in his quality of life thet predispose to serious conditions like thromboembolic events and heart failure. There is a general agreement in the benefit of antithrombotic therapy and the need of control of comorbid conditions, but there is not an ideal treatment for AF and the choice for the best treatment is based on the individual differences of each patient. Physician and patient must be aware of the risks and possible complications as well as the options in antiarrhythmic and antithrombotic drugs available in order to choose the best for each patient. We must get the message across that AF patients show a dynamic curse of the disease so reevaluation of the individual risk and response to therapy should be made.