A medical condition where muscle fibers (especially in the heart) contract rapidly and irregularly instead of in a coordinated rhythm.
From Latin 'fibrilla' (small thread or fiber) combined with the suffix '-ation' indicating a state or process. Coined in medicine during the 1800s when physicians observed this phenomenon in heart disease.
Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder, affecting millions of people, and it inspired the creation of portable ECG devices like the Apple Watch can now detect it through your wrist—technology turned fibrillation from invisible chaos into something you can see on a screen.
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