Scientists have developed a new
non-invasive, personalized 3D virtual heart assessment tool to help doctors
determine whether a patient faces a risk of life-threatening arrhythmia. When electrical
waves in heart run amok in a condition called arrhythmia, sudden death can
occur. To save the life of a patient at risk, doctors currently implant a small
defibrillator to sense the onset of arrhythmia and jolt the heart back to a
normal rhythm.
However, it is difficult to decide
which patients truly need the invasive, costly electrical implant. “Our virtual
heart test significantly outperformed several existing clinical metric in
predicting future arrhythmic events”, scientists said. This is non-invasive and
personalized virtual heart risk assessment could help prevent sudden cardiac
deaths and allow patients who are not at risk to avoid unnecessary defibrillator
implantations.
Researchers formed its predictions
by using the distinctive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) records of patients who
had survived a heart attack but were left with damaged cardiac tissue that predisposes
the heart to deadly arrhythmias. The study involved data from 41 patients who
had survived a heart attack and had an ejection fraction – a measure of how
much blood is being pumped out of the heart – of less than 35%.
Researchers used a pre-implant MRI
scans of the recipients’ hearts to build patient-specific digital replicas of
the organs. Using computer modeling techniques, the geometrical replica of each
patient’s heart was brought to life by incorporating representations of the
electrical processes in the cardiac cells and the communication among cells.
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