Effects of fibrosis on the extracellular potential based on 3D reconstructions from histological sections of heart tissue: A proof of concept simulation study

• Published in: Current directions in biomedical engineering 2016-09, Vol.2 (1), p.675-678
• Main Authors: Rottmann, Markus, Zürn, Jannik, Arslan, Ufuk, Klingel, Karin, Dössel, Olaf
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2364-5504; 2364-5504
• DOI: 10.1515/cdbme-2016-0147

Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia. However, the mechanisms of AF are not completely understood. It is known that fractionated signals are measured in AF but the etiology of fractionated signals is still not clear. The central question is to evaluate the effects of segmented fibrotic areas in histological tissue sections on the extracellular potential in a simulation study. We calculated the transmembrane voltages and extracellular potentials from the excitation wave front around a 3D fibrotic area from mouse hearts that were reconstructed from histological tissue sections. Extracellular potentials resulted in fragmented signals and differed strongly by stimulations from different directions. The transmural angle of the excitation waves had a significantly influence on the signal morphologies. We suggest for future clinical systems to implement the possibility for substrate mapping by stimulations from different directions in sinus rhythm.