Atrial tissue characterisation using electroanatomic voltage mapping and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging
Authors: Sim I , Razeghi O , Solis Lemus JA , Mukherjee R , O’hare D , O’neill L , Kotadia I , Roney CH , Wright M , Chiribiri A , Niederer S , O’neill M , Williams SE 
Published: May 2022

Funding Acknowledgements

Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): British Heart Foundation

Background

Atrial voltage mapping and atrial cardiac magnetic resonance imaging are two contemporary methods for quantification of atrial fibrosis. However, the absence of a gold standard for measuring atrial fibrosis has precluded their direct comparison. Nevertheless, understanding the relative performance of voltage mapping and atrial late gadolinium enhancement for identification of atrial cardiomyopathy remains critical to correctly targeting clinical application of these techniques.

Purpose

To assess the relative performance of electroanatomic voltage mapping and atrial late gadolinium enhancement imaging using three surrogate markers chosen to distinguish pre-procedural utility (progression to recurrent atrial fibrillation following ablation) from potential utility for providing atrial fibrillation mechanistic insights (paroxysmal vs. persistent status of atrial fibrillation and relationship with co-morbidities associated with atrial fibrillation).

Methods

123 patients underwent atrial late gadolinium enhancement imaging and electroanatomic voltage mapping prior to atrial fibrillation ablation. Atrial late gadolinium enhancement imaging was assessed with CEMRG software and electroanatomic voltage mapping processed with OpenEP software using previously published thresholds. Low voltage tissue was defined at (1) &lt;0.5mV, (2) &lt;1.17mV, and (3) &lt;1.3mV. Atrial fibrosis using late gadolinium enhancement was defined using four thresholds (1) signal intensity &gt;3.3 standard deviations above the blood pool mean; (2) image intensity ratio (IIR) 1.2x blood pool mean; (3) IIR 1.32x blood pool mean; and (4) IIR 0.97x blood pool mean.

Results

Patients with persistent atrial fibrillation and those with CHA2DS2VaSc &gt;2 had increased low voltage area for each of the thresholds tested, but there was no increase in atrial late gadolinium enhancement area at any of the imaging thresholds tested.

Increased atrial fibrosis using IIR&gt;0.97 was independently associated with recurrence of atrial fibrillation (OR 1.05 (CI 1.01-1.09), p=0.009) in both univariate and multivariate analysis. Low voltage area &lt;1.13mV and low voltage area &lt;1.17mV were associated with increased risk of recurrence (OR 1.02 (CI 1.01-1.04), p=0.01, and OR 1.03 (CI 1.01-1.04), p=0.009) in univariate analysis but neither voltage threshold remained statistically significant in multivariate analysis controlling for clinical variables.

Conclusion

Increased fibrosis burden measured with atrial magnetic resonance imaging, but not with low voltage area, is independently associated with recurrence of atrial fibrillation following catheter ablation. However, increased low voltage area measured with electroanatomic mapping is associated with persistent atrial fibrillation status and CHADS2VaSc score. These findings support the use of magnetic resonance imaging for pre-procedure assessment and the use of electroanatomic mapping for intraprocedural mechanism-based assessment of atrial cardiomyopathy.