“…Fibrosis is also a pathophysiological hallmark of atrial fibrillation (Gal & Marrouche, ; Kottkamp, ), which has a prevalence of ~9% in those >65 years old and is a major risk factor for stroke (Piccini et al, ; Staerk, Sherer, Ko, Benjamin, & Helm, ). In the conduction system, fibrosis causes bradyarrhythmia and heart block, a substantial cause of morbidity in the elderly (Csepe, Kalyanasundaram, Hansen, Zhao, & Fedorov, ; Kerola et al, ). Risk factors for cardiac fibrosis are diverse and include hypertension (Cuspidi, Ciulla, & Zanchetti, ), ischaemic heart disease (Hinderer & Schenke‐Layland, ), aortic stenosis (Bing et al, ; Katbeh et al, ), inherited cardiomyopathy (Gulati et al, ; Ho et al, ), diabetes (Russo & Frangogiannis, ), and ageing (Lu et al, ).…”