Unified mechanism of local drivers in a percolation model of atrial fibrillation.

ABSTRACT: The mechanisms of atrial fibrillation (AF) are poorly understood, resulting in disappointing success rates of ablative treatment. Different mechanisms defined largely by different atrial activation patterns have been proposed and, arguably, this dispute has slowed the progress of AF research. Recent clinical evidence suggests a unifying mechanism of local drivers based on sustained reentrant circuits in the complex atrial architecture. Here, we present a percolation inspired computational model showing spontaneous emergence of AF that strongly supports, and gives a theoretical explanation for, the clinically observed diversity of activation. We show that the difference in surface activation patterns is a direct consequence of the thickness of the discrete network of heart muscle cells thro

SUBMITTER: Falkenberg M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7314598 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature