Quantitative-electrogram-based methods for guiding catheter ablation in atrial fibrillation

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in humans, with an estimated lifetime prevalence of 25%. It is characterized by irregular and disorganized electrical activation of the atria. In the past decade, catheter ablation, i.e., focally burning targeted areas of cardiac muscle, has emerged as a potentially curative therapy for AF. Accompanying this development there has been an increasing interest in quantitative intraprocedural signal analysis to guide the selection of ablation targets. In this review, we provide an overview of quantitative signal processing approaches for mapping and ablation of AF.