Can we predict if atrial fibrillation will respond to certain ablation treatments?

Development of patient-specific tools to determine the need for adjunctive ablation following PVI for persistent AF using detailed characterisation of the substrate and the mode of recurrence

Intermediate Clinical Research Fellow Dr Nick Linton is working out ways to detect people with continuous atrial fibrillation who respond well to ablation treatment. Trained in both cardiology and engineering, he wants to apply engineering concepts to clinical problems to benefit people with heart and circulatory disease. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm. It is sometimes treated by inserting catheters into the heart. These destroy, or ablate, tiny areas of the heart tissue that are causing the abnormal rhythm. For patients with intermittent AF, using this treatment around the pulmonary veins (called pulmonary vein isolation, or PVI) is usually successful, but it only works in around a third of patients with continuous AF. Patients can receive additional ablation, but this carries risks. Dr Linton wants to identify patients with continuous AF who will respond to PVI alone. In this project, he will study patients receiving an AF ablation. The patients will have an MRI scan and will have electrical measurements taken of the heart during the ablation procedure. Dr Linton will then develop computer models of the patient’s heart that guide ablation treatments and predict the outcome of the ablation procedure. Identifying people with AF who respond to PVI alone will avoid further unnecessary procedures and will help doctors tailor the treatment of AF to the individual patient’s needs.