What Is Afib? | Johns Hopkins Medicine With Afib, electrical impulses fire from multiple sites in both atria. That can cause the atria to contract 400 or more times per minute. The ventricles become overwhelmed trying to keep up with the contractions.

Atrial flutter: extremely rapid beating of the atria (between 240 and 340 times per minute) due to a "short circuit" in the upper half of the heart Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT): rapid heartbeat caused by a "short circuit" resulting from an extra electrical pathway in the heart

The most notable exceptions to this rule are inappropriate sinus tachycardia and multifocal atrial tachycardia, for which catheter ablation plays little to no role in management. Another exception is SVTs in patients with congenital heart disease, where catheter ablation in experienced centres is provided a 2A, LOE C recommendation.