The effect of fibrosis transmurality on electrogram morphology and atrial fibrillation dynamics

  • Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and its prevalence is progressively increasing with the ageing of the population and the appearance of comorbidities. During AF, the atrial substrate undergoes electrical and structural remodeling, which is typical of this pathophysiology. Structural remodeling is characterized by fibrosis and it is still unclear how this affects the dynamics of AF and the morphology of intracardiac electrograms.

    Computational mathematical models are a useful tool to investigate the influence of different parameters and the mechanism of physiological and pathological behavior in the cardiac tissue. Computational models of the cardiac tissue can help to understand how different characteristics of the atrial substrate can modify the dynamics of AF. The aim of this study is to study the effect of fibrosis transmurality from the epicardium to the endocardium. Additionally, the aim is to obtain information of how different fibrosis density affects the dynamics of AF and the electrical signals recorded at the surface of the tissue (electrograms).