1. Differences in Repeating Patterns of Complex Fractionated Left Atrial Electrograms in Longstanding Persistent Atrial Fibrillation as Compared With Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
- Author
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Angelo B. Biviano, John A. Vest, William Whang, Edward J. Ciaccio, Alok Gambhir, Andrew J. Einstein, and Hasan Garan
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medicine.medical_specialty ,Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation ,Article ,Pulmonary vein ,Diagnosis, Differential ,Electrocardiography ,Left atrial ,Physiology (medical) ,Internal medicine ,Atrial Fibrillation ,Humans ,Medicine ,Heart Atria ,Retrospective Studies ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,business.industry ,Atrial fibrillation ,Dominant frequency ,medicine.disease ,Ostium ,Pulmonary Veins ,Longstanding persistent atrial fibrillation ,Cardiology ,Electrophysiologic Techniques, Cardiac ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine ,business ,Algorithms - Abstract
Background— Complex fractionated atrial electrograms (CFAE) are morphologically more uniform in persistent longstanding as compared with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). It was hypothesized that this may result from a greater degree of repetitiveness in CFAE patterns at disparate left atrial (LA) sites in longstanding AF. Methods and Results— CFAEs were obtained from recording sites outside the 4 pulmonary vein (PV) ostia and at a posterior and an anterior LA site during paroxysmal and longstanding persistent AF (10 patients each, 120 sequences total). To quantify repetitiveness in CFAE, the dominant frequency was measured from ensemble spectra using 8.4-second sequences, and repetitiveness was calculated by 2 novel techniques: linear prediction and Fourier reconstruction methods. Lower prediction and reconstruction errors were considered indicative of increasing repetitiveness and decreasing randomness. In patients with paroxysmal AF, CFAE pattern repetitiveness was significantly lower (randomness higher) at antral sites outside PV ostia as compared with LA free wall sites ( P P Conclusions— In paroxysmal AF, CFAE repetitiveness is low and randomness high outside the PVs, particularly the left superior PV. As evolution to persistent longstanding AF occurs, CFAE repetitiveness becomes more uniformly distributed at disparate sites, possibly signifying an increasing number of drivers from remote PVs.
- Published
- 2011
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