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AF Symposium 2015
Dr. Natalia Trayanova
The Virtual Heart Computerized Simulation
by Steve S. Ryan, PhD
The most hopeful, promising research of the 2015 AF Symposium was presented by Dr. Natalia Trayanova of Johns Hopkins Un., Baltimore, MD. She described the “virtual heart”—a computerized model to simulate an individual patient’s heart.
A Computerized Model
The idea is to build computerized models that can be used to guide an individual patient’s therapy. She previously simulated a heart attack in a specific region of an individual heart and how it affected the dynamics of that specific heart.
Using the virtual heart computerized simulation, she can, for example, program in not only how much fibrosis an individual heart has but its structure. (Is the fibrosis circularly-distributed? Does it have a complex shape or is it patchy?)
The Bordeaux Group Patient Data
Dr. Trayanova is rapidly developing more atria data and experience. The Bordeaux group is providing her patient data from their ECGI body surface potential mapping system (CardioInsight). She has done approximately a dozen retrospective studies using the virtual heart technology (as of January 2015).
The Virtual Heart Simulation images
How it Works
Dr. Trayanova and her team start by doing an MRI scan. Then they hyper-enhance segments which correspond to areas of fibrotic remodeling.
The next step is to develop a computational mesh that incorporates representations of ion channels, calcium cycling and other electrophysical aspects of an individual’s atria. All this is incorporated into patient-specific geometry of the model.
What the Model Can Reveal
Then they let the model run and see what the arrhythmia looks like. Does the fibrotic substrate anchor rotors in particular locations? What are the spatial characteristics of the regions where they are located? Can these spatial metrics guide where the proper ablation should be?
Dr. Trayanova’s team merges these virtual atria with a CARTO map to predict where the catheter should ablate.
Editor’s Comments:
The potential of Dr. Trayanova’s research for A-Fib patients is incredible! Imagine getting an MRI and knowing where your A-Fib is coming from, how your A-Fib affects and works in your heart both now and in the predictive future, how various A-Fib drugs can be expected and predicted to affect your heart, how much and what kind of fibrosis you have, how you can expect your fibrosis to progress and affect you over time, what therapies should be done in your particular case, if you need a catheter ablation, where exactly in your heart the EP needs to ablate, and to be able to accurately predict whether or not or how fast you will progress from paroxysmal to persistent A-Fib based on computer models that mirror your own heart.
Dr. Trayanova’s research has the potential to radically change the way A-Fib is treated. Almost all the uncertainties EPs and A-Fib patients now have to deal with can potentially be eliminated with the virtual computer reconstruction of individual A-Fib hearts.
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Last updated: Sunday, April 19, 2020
