A decision support tool to investigate patients with atrial fibrillation

The EXACT-IN-AF project is a collaboration between Maastricht University, Maastricht University Medical Centre and YourRhythmics BV that will develop an innovative decision support tool to improve the characterisation of patients with atrial Fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac rhythm disorder. It is the leading cause of stroke and doubles cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. More than 5 million people in the EU suffer from AF. Rhythm control therapy of AF shows limited success rates, largely related to the lack of mechanism-driven treatment of AF. Individualised therapeutic approaches may offer improvements but require tools to understand the electrophysiological alterations based on easily accessible clinical signs and markers in an individual patient.

This project aims to develop the next generation of non-invasive AF complexity assessment by introducing the extended ECG: a novel lead configuration that provides an improved image of atrial activity with additional electrodes on the body surface and a transesophageal ECG catheter. YourRhythmics BV develops a medical device to record and analyse extended ECGs. Currently these ECGs are being recorded in patients undergoing electrical cardioversion and in patients scheduled for ablation for AF. Automated algorithms will be developed for advanced ECG feature extraction and build prediction models to predict recurrence of AF after treatment in these cohorts, Moreover, AF incidence in another large cohort of patients without a history of AF will be predicted. Improved risk assessment of AF incidence and recurrence of AF will facilitate timely and appropriate treatment of AF, thereby reducing AF burden and costs due to AF-related complications and ineffective procedures.

The developed algorithms will be incorporated into an innovative decision support tool that will be marketed by YourRhythmics BV.