A Comparison of Regional Classification Strategies Implemented for the Population Based Approach to Modelling Atrial Fibrillation

(1) Background: in silico models are increasingly relied upon to study the mechanisms of atrial fibrillation. Due to the complexity associated with atrial models, cellular variability is often ignored. Recent studies have shown that cellular variability may have a larger impact on electrophysiologic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMathematics (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 14; p. 1686
Main Authors Elliott, Jordan, Belen, Maria Kristina, Mainardi, Luca, Rodriguez Matas, Josè Felix
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2021
Subjects
AF remodelling
atrial fibrillation
Biomarkers
Cardiac arrhythmia
Clustering
Fibrillation
Food science
Methods
Morphology
Mortality
Population
population of models
Populations
Potassium
regional classification
Regions
Variability
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Summary:(1) Background: in silico models are increasingly relied upon to study the mechanisms of atrial fibrillation. Due to the complexity associated with atrial models, cellular variability is often ignored. Recent studies have shown that cellular variability may have a larger impact on electrophysiological behaviour than previously expected. This paper compares two methods for AF remodelling using regional populations. (2) Methods: using 200,000 action potentials, experimental data was used to calibrate healthy atrial regional populations with two cellular models. AF remodelling was applied by directly adjusting maximum channel conductances. AF remodelling was also applied through adjusting biomarkers. The methods were compared upon replication of experimental data. (3) Results: compared to the percentage method, the biomarker approach resulted in smaller changes. RMP, APD20, APD50, and APD90 were changed in the percentage method by up to 11%, 500%, 50%, and 60%, respectively. In the biomarker approach, RMP, APD20, APD50, and APD90 were changed by up to 4.5%, 132%, 50%, and 35%, respectively. (4) Conclusion: applying AF remodelling through biomarker-based clustering resulted in channel conductance changes that were consistent with experimental data, while maintaining the highly non-linear relationships between channel conductances and biomarkers. Directly changing conductances in the healthy regional populations impacted the non-linear relationships and resulted in non-physiological APD20 and APD50 values.
ISSN:2227-7390
2227-7390
DOI:10.3390/math9141686