With the rapid evolution of atrial fibrillation ablation procedures, electrophysiologists have necessarily strived for simple and anatomic-based approaches. In all except the most straightforward procedures, however, questions regarding the significance of various potentials recorded on mapping and ablation catheters arise.1,2 Other articles in this series have described in detail the various approaches to atrial fibrillation ablation. In this article, the anatomic and electrophysiologic bases for pacing maneuvers used with a variety of ablation approaches are reviewed.
