A newly developed computer model simulates the activity of individual patients’ 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 King’s College created a system that uses detailed data about patient’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
