Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia diagnosed in 33 million people worldwide. AF is a progressive disease that initially manifests as spontaneously intermittent paroxysmal episodes (PAFs), forming individual profiles of the time distribution of PAF episodes. These profiles are thought to carry information about disease progression and complications. Causes of AF episodes (triggers) are alcohol, caffeine, exercise, sleep disorders etc. Many triggers can be controlled by lifestyle changes. Dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system may be another major factor contributing to the onset of PAF. Unfortunately, there is a lack of technology to synchronously record PAF profiles and subjectively and objectively assessed arrhythmia triggers.
The TriggersAF project aims to:
• investigate the reliability of PAF profile reconstruction using a wrist-wearing device,
• develop prototype hardware and software for PAF trigger recognition and management system,
• explore PAF pattern relationships with subjective and objectively evaluable arrhythmia triggers.
Personalized PPV trigger reconstruction and management technology will open up opportunities to accumulate knowledge about the interfaces of PAF profiles with patient-specific triggers, predict the risk of complications, and develop personalized therapy methodologies.
The project is implemented by KTU Institute of Biomedical Engineering with a partner Vilnius University.
Project funding:
This research project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund according to the 2014–2020 Operational Programme for the European Union Funds’ Investments, under measure’s No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718 activity “Research Projects Implemented by World-class Researcher Groups to develop R&D activities relevant to economic sectors, which could later be commercialized”.
Project results:
1. The project will develop a paroxysmal atrial fibrillation arrhythmia management system consisting of a wrist-worn device, server data analysis software, and a program for a smart device. The developed system will serve two important purposes: (1) to enable patients to manage paroxysmal PV by non-pharmacological control of individual arrhythmia-provoking factors, and (2) to investigate the physiological mechanisms of arrhythmia triggers. The concept of the system is intended to be protected by the filing of a European patent application.
2. To promote open science, part of the registered and depersonalized biosignal database will be hosted in open access archives at Physionet.org, IEEE DataPort, or Zenodo.
3. The results of the project will be disseminated and published at 4 high-level scientific conferences abroad and 4 publications in scientific journals with a citation index.
4. The prototype of the arrhythmia management system is planned to be further used in VU Santara clinics. In parallel, the capabilities of the system will be presented to potential investors.
Project coordinator: Kaunas University of Technology
Project partners: Vilnius University
