Arrhythmogenic Ablation Lesions Underlie Atrial Fibrillation Recurrence: A Longitudinal Bi-Atrial Digital Twin Study
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence following catheter ablation remains a significant clinical challenge.This study investigates whether recurrence could result from the incomplete elimination of the native arrhythmogenic substrate or from new pro-arrhythmic substrates created by ablation.Patient-specific computational models of the atria (i.e., digital twins; DTs) constructed from pre-and post-ablation delayed-enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were used to assess the arrhythmogenic substrate before and after the procedure.Our findings reveal that the ablation procedure had a differential effect on the substrate of patients whose AF did and did not recur, and suggest that recurrence may be facilitated by ablation lesions themselves.This work presents a novel framework using longitudinal bi-atrial DTs and demonstrates the value of computational models in elucidating the mechanisms underlying AF recurrence.
Source: Computing in cardiology
Institution: Johns Hopkins University
Language: English
Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4417306916