Development of a novel probabilistic algorithm for localization of rotors during atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an irregular heart rhythm that can lead to stroke and other heart-related complications. Catheter ablation has been commonly used to destroy triggering sources of AF in the atria and consequently terminate the arrhythmia. However, efficient and accurate localization of the AF sustaining sources known as rotors is a major challenge in catheter ablation. In this paper, we developed a novel probabilistic algorithm that can adaptively guide a Lasso diagnostic catheter to locate the center of a rotor. Our algorithm uses a Bayesian updating approach to search for and locate rotors based on the characteristics of electrogram signals collected at every catheter placement. The algorithm was evaluated using a 10 × 10 cm 2 D atrial tissue simulation of the Nygren human atrial cell model and was able to successfully guide the catheter to the rotor center in 3.37 ± 1.05 (mean±std) steps (including placement at the center) when starting from any location on the tissue. Our novel automated algorithm can potentially play a significant role in patient-specific ablation of AF sources and increase the success of AF elimination procedures.