2025 Volume 63 Issue 1 Pages 25-32
Understanding the complex excitation dynamics within the atrium is crucial in catheter ablation treatment for persistent non-paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Previously, the ExTRa MappingTM system was developed to measure the inside of an atrium using a 20-pole catheter and present images of excitation propagation in real time. However, this system generates excitation propagation images independently for each measurement position only in two dimensions. This study thus proposes a method that maps excitation propagation images generated by the ExTRa MappingTM system onto a three-dimensional (3D) atrial model, enabling 3D visualization of excitation propagation data at multiple positions. In particular, the heatmap mode, which visualizes the distribution of the rotors (phase singularities) as a heatmap, can serve as an effective indicator for catheter ablation. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we visualized five actual cases. We also conducted a user study to confirm the feasibility and practicality of our proposed method, for which physicians and technicians generally provided positive feedback.
