Mapping technologies for catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation beyond pulmonary vein isolation

Abstract

Catheter ablation remains the most effective and relatively minimally invasive therapy for rhythm control in patients with AF. Ablation has consistently shown a reduction of arrhythmia-related symptoms and significant improvement in patients' quality of life compared with medical treatment. The ablation strategy relies on a well-established anatomical approach of effective pulmonary vein isolation. Additional anatomical targets have been reported with the aim of increasing procedure success in complex substrates. However, larger ablated areas with uncertainty of targeting relevant regions for AF initiation or maintenance are not exempt from the potential risk of complications and pro-arrhythmia. Recent developments in mapping tools and computational methods for advanced signal processing during AF have reported novel strategies to identify atrial regions associated with AF maintenance. These novel tools - although mainly limited to research series - represent a significant step forward towards the understanding of complex patterns of propagation during AF and the potential achievement of patient-tailored AF ablation strategies for the near future.