EDITORIAL When predicting atrial fibrillation, think ‘scene of calamity’!

This editorial refers to ‘Prognostic value of left atrial ex-pansion index and exercise-induced change in atrial natri-uretic peptide as long-term predictors of atrial fibrillation recurrence ’ by M. Govindan et al., on page 1302 Predicting events in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) comes in two flavours: predicting events linked to the atria (such as AF re-currence after cardioversion or ablation, or AF progression from paroxysmal to persistent), and events whose origin may be remote from the atria such as stroke, heart failure, or myocardial infarction. Mechanisms linked to the ‘scene of calamity’, i.e. the atrial wall itself, may appear stronger predictors for AF than char-acteristics remote from the atria such as age of the patient and underlying ventricular disease, even when combined in a risk score like HATCH, a score used to predict AF progression.1 In this respect, the findings as presented in the current issue of th