Atrial fibrillation continues to be a challenging arrhythmia. There are some 
conventional, time-tested explanations of atrial fibrillation genesis, however 
some uncertainty of its complete understanding still exists. We focused on 
atrial ischemia which, hypothetically, could be responsible for manifestation of 
the arrhythmia, irrespective of the underlying heart disease. Evidences abounds 
that atrial fibrillation has an extremely strong association with 
nutritional/oxidative status of myocardium. This arrhythmia seemingly may stem 
from the electrophysiological differences taking place in the boundary areas. To 
validate such assumptions we have surveyed widely accepted theories based on 
clinical and experimental evidence. There was an attempt to integrate some 
well-known theoretical explanations (focal, multifocal, ectopic, reentrant 
activity, atrial remodeling, etc.) into a new conceptually systematized 
arrhythmogenesis. Confronting ischemic and non-ischemic atrial zones 
electrophysiologically on their borderlines presumably creates a substrate 
vulnerable to the development of atrial fibrillation. The behavior of these 
interrelated areas is likely ischemia-dependent; the separating borderline(s) 
may be treated as conflictogenic, releasing triggers/drivers to commence and to 
perpetuate the arrhythmia. Ischemically damaged and non-damaged myocardial areas 
likely participate in the relay-race carousel of arrhythmogenicity due to their 
mutual interactions, accompanied by the "fireworks" at the separating 
borderlines. It could be concluded that myocardial ischemia as a nonspecific 
proarrhythmic factor presumably plays a key role in the genesis and sustenance 
of atrial fibrillation. Theoretically the most important step in eradication of 
arrhythmogenic substrate might be an overall abolition of ischemia regardless of 
the characteristics of underlying heart disease. Innovative intellectual and 
explorative research is needed to render innocuous the ischemia that might help 
us win the century's cardioarrhythmological battle.