It is well tolerated by most people who have it.
Treatment however can be somewhat complicated and frustrating at times.
In addition, it can be associated with strokes and other complications, and therefore deserves careful evaluation. The mechanism of the arrhythmia is illustrated above. There is no effective contraction of the atrial muscle in this situation. The lower chambers, the ventricles, continue to depolarize in a normal pattern. Their activity begins in the AV node and spreads down to the ventricles through specialized conduction tissues in the normal fashion.