The treatment for atrial fibrillation is a little bit complicated. Sometimes we try and get people back to the normal rhythm with either medication or what we call electric shock therapy, under anaesthetic, to try to get the heart back to normal. And sometimes people in atrial fibrillation are given medications to slow their heart rate down a little bit, and sometimes we give them a blood thinner to minimise the risk of stroke. So the treatment of atrial fibrillation is relatively straightforward for doctors, but from the patient’s point-of-view, there are many aspects that need to be considered.

Professor David Celermajer is Scandrett Professor of Cardiology and Head of Cardiology at the University of Sydney.