Researchers at Queen Mary University of London announced on June 17 that improved 'digital twin' models could assist doctors in treating patients with atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat affecting over 1.5 million people in the UK, is a leading cause of stroke. The standard treatment is ablation, which destroys small patches of heart tissue causing abnormal rhythms, but this procedure does not always succeed on the first attempt and repeat procedures are common.
The research team created detailed three-dimensional digital heart models for nine patients and calibrated each model using three different types of clinical data: MRI scans detecting scarring, electrical voltage measurements from cardiac mapping procedures, and conduction velocity data measuring how quickly electrical signals travel through the heart tissue. The study found that electrical data—both voltage and conduction speed—consistently identified more and different ablation targets than MRI data alone.
Lead author Dr. Mahmoud Ehnesh said, "We found that MRI scans of the heart are valuable, but they don't tell the whole story. This study compared three types of clinical data, imaging and two types of electroanatomic mapping data, and found that each captures a different dimension of how atrial fibrillation behaves in an individual heart. Relying on any single source means missing part of the picture. Combining all three within a single personalised model is the most promising path toward more accurate, targeted ablation for persistent AF patients."
Senior author Dr. Caroline Roney said, "If you have a persistent irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation) and are considering ablation, personalised computer modelling may one day help surgeons plan your procedure more precisely, but this technology is still in the research phase and not yet part of routine clinical care."
The paper was published in the Journal of Physiology by a cross-university team including researchers from Queen Mary University of London; Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospital (Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust); Imperial College London; King's College London; University of Leeds; and IHU Liryc (Bordeaux).
