'It seems that we may also have to think of atrial fibrillation as an atrial cardiomyopathy -- that is, a challenged heart -- rather than as a purely electrical disorder', she says. Defects in muscle fibres and mitochondria Contrary to expectations, the researchers did not find any disturbances in the ion channels that spread electrical signals between the heart's muscle cells. Instead, they found defects in the structure of the heart muscle itself and in the mitochondria that normally function as the cell's power plant. The defects already occurred in the foetal stage of the fish and deteriorated exponentially with...