Analysis of inter-atrium differences in paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation using principal component analysis

The pathophysiological mechanisms of atrial fibrillation (AF) are not entirely clear yet, and there is no full explanation for the development and evolution of the arrhythmia. The goal of this study is to find inter-atrium differences in electrophysiological behavior between persistent and paroxysmal AF. The database analyzed contains intra-cardiac records from 14 patients with paroxysmal AF and 10 with persistent AF. Dominant frequency and sample entropy measurements showed that in the paroxysmal group there was a left-to-right gradient. These differences were enhanced after the extraction of the main components with principal component analysis. These findings may be interpreted as a possible evolutionary path from paroxysmal to persistent AF, with a higher irregularity in the left atrium in paroxysmal AF and non- significant differences in persistent AF.