Non-invasive detection of reentrant drivers during atrial fibrillation: A clinical-computational study

Reentrant drivers or mother rotors have been defined as a mechanism responsible of atrial fibrillation (AF) maintenance whose ablation can terminate the fibrillatory episodes. This study presents a novel non-invasive approach to identify atrial reentrant patterns. High-density surface potential recordings were obtained from 14 AF patients and singularity points (SP) were located in the torso phase maps after band-pass filtering at the highest dominant frequency. An atrial-torso computer model was used to investigate the effect of the band-pass filtering on the electric potential signal. Stable SPs were found during 73.1+16.8% of time after band-pass filtering vs. 8.3+5.7% on raw signals. Surface SPs representing atrial rotors were detected at specific torso areas related with their atrial location. Phase analysis after band-pass filtering can detect atrial drivers. helping to plan the best therapy strategies.