Doctors & patients are saying about 'A-Fib.com'...

"A-Fib.com is a great web site for patients, that is unequaled by anything else out there."

Dr. Douglas L. Packer, MD, FHRS, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

"Jill and I put you and your work in our prayers every night. What you do to help people through this [A-Fib] process is really incredible."

Jill and Steve Douglas, East Troy, WI

“I really appreciate all the information on your website as it allows me to be a better informed patient and to know what questions to ask my EP.

Faye Spencer, Boise, ID, April 2017

“I think your site has helped a lot of patients.”

Dr. Hugh G. Calkins, MD Johns Hopkins,
Baltimore, MD

Doctors & patients are saying about 'Beat Your A-Fib'...

"If I had [your book] 10 years ago, it would have saved me 8 years of hell.”

Roy Salmon, Patient, A-Fib Free,
Adelaide, Australia

"This book is incredibly complete and easy-to-understand for anybody. I certainly recommend it for patients who want to know more about atrial fibrillation than what they will learn from doctors...."

Pierre Jaïs, M.D. Professor of Cardiology, Haut-Lévêque Hospital, Bordeaux, France

"Dear Steve, I saw a patient this morning with your book [in hand] and highlights throughout. She loves it and finds it very useful to help her in dealing with atrial fibrillation."

Dr. Wilber Su,
Cavanaugh Heart Center, Phoenix, AZ

"...masterful. You managed to combine an encyclopedic compilation of information with the simplicity of presentation that enhances the delivery of the information to the reader. This is not an easy thing to do, but you have been very, very successful at it."

Ira David Levin, heart patient,
Rome, Italy

"Within the pages of Beat Your A-Fib, Dr. Steve Ryan, PhD, provides a comprehensive guide for persons seeking to find a cure for their Atrial Fibrillation."

Walter Kerwin, MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

AF Symposium 2017

‘3D Virtual Heart’ Predicts Location of Rotors

You may recall my 2015 report about Dr. Natalia Trayanova of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD and her ground breaking presentation on the “Virtual Heart”.

The Virtual Heart - Dr Natalia Trayanova

2015: “Virtual Heart” image

Her 2017 presentation was a continuation of her innovative research, this time about A-Fib rotors and fibrosis.

The Virtual Heart is a computerized model to simulate an individual patient’s heart that can be used to guide an individual patient’s therapy.

Dr. Trayanova constructed three-dimensional computer models of A-Fib atria from MRI data and assessed the propensity of each model to develop arrhythmia.

She found that reentrant drivers (rotors) persisted in areas of higher fibrosis density and entropy (lack of order or predictability). They didn’t persist in regions of non-fibrotic sites and regions of deep fibrosis.

Reentrant drivers (rotors) persisted in areas of higher fibrosis density and entropy (lack of predictability).

N. Trayanova

Dr. Trayanova compared the predictive ability of her models to actual ECGI mapping cases from the Bordeaux group. Overall, her prediction of where rotors would be found coincided with where rotors were actually found by ECGI.

But there wasn’t 100% agreement with the ECGI data. She hypothesized that, as she further develops these virtual heart models, they might someday be used, along with ECGI and other mapping strategies, to look for rotors where her models predict they should be found.

Return to 2017 AF Symposium reports
If you find any errors on this page, email us. ♥ Last updated: Sunday, May 19, 2019