A newly developed computer model simulates the activity of individual patientsā€™ hearts and may lead to more effective treatment for atrial fibrillation, a very common heart condition.
Atrial fibrillation reduces blood supply, leading to dizziness, and irregular heartbeat breathlessness and fatigue, and increases the risk of a stroke. Every year, around 10,000 people in the UK have a catheter inserted in order to treat the condition using radio frequency energy. However, this procedure is not always successful and, in some instances, can be fatal.
In response to this, a group of researchers at Kingā€™s College created a system that uses detailed data about patientā€™s heart, obtained through medical imaging, and computational modelling to map tissue condition and blood flow, and enables simulation of around 10 cardiac cycles lasting a few seconds in total. This can then be used to assess the effectiveness of different treatments for individual patients.
Full details can be found here
