High-resolution endocardial and epicardial optical mapping in a sheep model of stretch-induced atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a complex cardiac arrhythmia with high morbidity and mortality.(1,2) It is the most common sustained cardiac rhythm disturbance seen in clinical practice and its prevalence is expected to increase in the coming years.(3) Increased intra-atrial pressure and dilatation have been long recognized to lead to AF,(1,4) which highlights the relevance of using animal models and stretch to study AF dynamics. Understanding the mechanisms underlying AF requires visualization of the cardiac electrical waves with high spatial and temporal resolution. While high-temporal resolution can be achieved by conventional electrical mapping traditionally used in human electrophysiological studies, the small number of intra-atrial electrodes that can be used simultaneously limits the spatial resolution and precludes any detailed tracking of the electrical waves during the arrhythmia. The introduction of optical mapping in the early 90's enabled wide-field characterization of fibrillatory activity together with sub-millimeter spatial resolution in animal models(5,6) and led to the identification of rapidly spinning electrical wave patterns (rotors) as the sources of the fibrillatory activity that may occur in the ventricles or the atria.(7-9) Using combined time- and frequency-domain analyses of optical mapping it is possible to demonstrate discrete sites of high frequency periodic activity during AF, along with frequency gradients between left and right atrium. The region with fastest rotors activates at the highest frequency and drives the overall arrhythmia.(10,11) The waves emanating from such rotor interact with either functional or anatomic obstacles in their path, resulting in the phenomenon of fibrillatory conduction.(12) Mapping the endocardial surface of the posterior left atrium (PLA) allows the tracking of AF wave dynamics in the region with the highest rotor frequency. Importantly, the PLA is the region where intracavitary catheter-based ablative procedures are most successful terminating AF in patients,(13) which underscores the relevance of studying AF dynamics from the interior of the left atrium. Here we describe a sheep model of acute stretch-induced AF, which resembles some of the characteristics of human paroxysmal AF. Epicardial mapping on the left atrium is complemented with endocardial mapping of the PLA using a dual-channel rigid borescope c-mounted to a CCD camera, which represents the most direct approach to visualize the patterns of activation in the most relevant region for AF maintenance.