Grant: Operating Grant: Industry-partnered Collaborative Research

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm problem, causing illness, stroke, heart failure and premature death to many thousands of Canadians. It impairs cardiovascular performance through the scrambling of highly coordinated electrical signals in the heart. Atrial fibrillation is increasingly managed using radiofrequency catheter ablation (rCAB), developed as a way to obliterate AF triggers in patients with intermittent (paroxysmal) AF. These techniques have been applied to patients with continuous (persistent) AF, the vast majority of patients, with less optimal results because AF is now self-sustaining and much less reliant on triggers. The gradual nature of the disease, combined with an aging population, will overwhelm an already constrained healthcare system, where current estimates for those affected are pegged at approximately $3.6 billion per year. Despite the inclusion of rCAB in the Canadian guidelines on the management of AF, the procedure has significant limitations because self-sustaining sources of AF that exist are not detected by the computers that are commonly used to assist doctors in rCAB. The basis of this research is to optimize the computer assisted approach to locate and map self-sustaining sources of AF so they may be targeted during rCAB. To this end, we have mobilized the talent and expertise of a clinical-scientist, several electrical engineers and computer scientists to identify the exact coordinates of novel, highly specific AF sources and display them on the generated map. This will allow doctors to guide ablation to the most important areas and eliminate AF at source.