Background
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common and severe arrhythmia, which largely affects quality of life. State-of-the-art treatment of AF still relies heavily on pharmacological modalities. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate and compare the properties of three repolarizing currents which contribute to AF-induced remodeling, i.e. the transient outward (Ito), ultra-rapid delayed rectifier (IKur) and acetylcholine-sensitive potassium currents (IK,ACh) in isolated atrial myocytes obtained from normal (SR) and tachypaced model of permanent atrial fibrillation (ATR) dogs.