title: Atrial fibrillation disorganization is reduced by catheter ablation: a standard ECG study.
abstract: Selection of candidates to catheter ablation (CA) of long-lasting persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) is challenging, since success is not guaranteed. In this study, we put forward an automated method for noninvasively evaluating the reduction of the complexity of the AF organization following CA. Complexity is meant as the amount of disorganization observed on the ECG, supposed to be directly correlated to the number and interactions of atrial wavefronts. By means of PCA, the complexity of the AF organization is evaluated quantitatively from a 12-lead ECG recording. Preliminary results show that CA is able to reduce the complexity of AF organization in the atrial wavefront pattern propagation, despite the persistence of AF in most cases. This can be viewed as a first clinical validation of this parameter. Whether AF complexity and its reduction by CA are predictive of long-term outcome is thus still to be determined.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire I3S, UNSA/CNRS, 2000 Route des Lucioles, Les Algorithmes Euclide B, B.P. 121, 06903 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France. bonizzi@i3s.unice.fr
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonizzi
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Meste
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zarzoso
authors.forename: Decebal Gabriel
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Latcu
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Popescu
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ricard
authors.forename: Nadir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Saoudi
mesh_terms: D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000379:methods*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D058067:Wavelet Analysis