Atrial arrhythmias are frequently treated using catheter ablation during electrophysiological (EP) studies. However, success rates are only moderate and could be improved with the help of personalized simulation models of the atria. In this work, we present a workflow to generate and validate personalized EP simulation models based on routine clinical computed tomography (CT) scans and intracardiac electrograms. From four patient data sets, we created anatomical models from angiographic CT data with an automatic segmentation algorithm. From clinical intracardiac catheter recordings, individual conduction velocities were calculated. In these subject-specific EP models, we simulated different pacing maneuvers and measurements with circular mapping catheters that were applied in the respective patients. This way, normal sinus rhythm and pacing from a coronary sinus catheter were simulated. Wave directions and conduction velocities were quantitatively analyzed in both clinical measurements and simulated data and were compared. On average, the overall difference of wave directions was 15° (8%), and the difference of conduction velocities was 16 cm/s (17%). The method is based on routine clinical measurements and is thus easy to integrate into clinical practice. In the long run, such personalized simulations could therefore assist treatment planning and increase success rates for atrial arrhythmias.
Y. Jiang, C. Qian, R. Hanna, D. Farina, and O. Dössel. Optimization of the electrode positions of multichannel ECG for the reconstruction of ischemic areas by solving the inverse electrocardiographic problem. In International Journal of Bioelectromagnetism (Cover Article), vol. 11(1) , pp. 27-37, 2009
The delineation of anatomical structures in medical images can be achieved in an efficient and robust manner using statistical anatomical organ models, which has been demonstrated for an already considerable set of organs, including the heart. While it is possible to provide models with sufficient shape variability to cope, to a large extent, with inter-patient variability, as long as object topology is conserved, it is a fundamental problem to cope with topological organ variability. We address this by creating a set of model variants and selecting the most appropriate model variant for the patient at hand. We propose a hybrid method combining model-based image analysis with a guided region growing approach for automated anatomical variant selection and apply it to the left atrium in cardiac CT images. Concerning the human heart, the left atrium is the most variable sub-structure with a variable number of pulmonary veins draining into it. It is of large clinical interest in the context of atrial fibrillation and related interventions.
R. Hanna, Y. Jiang, D. Farina, and O. Dössel. Imaging of cardiac electrical sources using a novel spatio-temporal MAP-based regularization method. In IFMBE Proceedings World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, vol. 25/2, pp. 813-816, 2009
Catheter ablation of complex atrial arrhythmias is a frequently applied procedure, but its success rates are only moderate and highly dependent on the experience of the physician. Personalized atrial simulation models could assist the physician in treatment planning and thus increase success rates. In this work we created a personalized anatomical model for a specific patient from CT image data. Left atrial conduction velocity and local wave directions were determined from intracardiac electrogram (EGM) recordings. We simulated normal sinus rhythm and the clinical pacing protocol using a Cellular Automaton. The incidence direction and conduction velocity were extracted from the simulated data and compared to the results of the clinical EGMs of the same patient. We then showed that the incidence angles differed by less than 15% and that the conduction velocity error was below 12 cm/s. This implies that the model has similar electric properties compared to the real atria. In conclusion, we have presented a workflow for model personalization and validation.
Y. Jiang, C. Qian, R. Hanna, D. Farina, and O. Dössel. Optimization of electrode positions of a wearable ECG monitoring system for efficient and effective detection of acute myocardial infarction. In Proc. Computers in Cardiology, 2009
Y. Jiang, C. Qian, R. Hanna, D. Farina, and O. Dössel. Optimization of the electrode positions of multichannel ECG for the reconstruction of ischemic areas by solving the inverse electrocardiographic problem. In Proc. the 7th International Symposium on Noninvasive Functional Source Imaging of the Brain and Heart and the International Conference on Functional Biomedical Imaging, 2009
Student Theses (2)
R. Hanna. Model-based segmentation of the left atrium for electrophysiological simulations. Institut für Biomedizinische Technik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). Diplomarbeit. 2009
R. Hanna. Adaptive spatiotemporal imaging of cardiac electrical sources. Institut für Biomedizinische Technik, Universität Karlsruhe (TH). . 2008