This Research Topic is part of the Atrial Fibrillation: Technology for Investigation, Monitoring and Treatment series:
Atrial Fibrillation: Technology for Diagnosis, Monitoring, and Treatment, Volume I
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death accounting for about 30% of deaths worldwide. Among these diseases, the incidence and prevalence of pathologies related to atrial fibrillation (AF) are reaching epidemic proportions today and are predicted to further surge in the future. AF is to date the most common sustained cardiac rhythm disorder with estimated prevalence of 2-4% in adults and it has been reported that in 2016 there were 46.3 million individuals worldwide with prevalent AF or atrial flutter. The prevalence of AF has increased by 33% in the last 20 years and is expected to increase further by more than 60% in 2050.
Overall, AF is a major societal burden with immense financial costs associated with the care of patients, mostly on hospitalization and complications. It is estimated that the total annual incremental costs of AF care can reach $26 billion in the US and AF costs across several European countries account for 0.28–2.60% of their total healthcare spending.
The reasons for the high burden of AF may lay in its heterogenous, multi-factorial and progressive nature; despite intense research efforts, its initiation, sustenance, and termination mechanisms are still poorly understood, and therapy remains suboptimal. It is widely accepted that AF research, healthcare delivery and outcomes can all be improved by advancement of technology.
The aim of this special series is to provide the broad clinical and basic research community with original and review papers on technological challenges and advances in AF. We welcome original research and review articles focusing on biomedical engineering aspects of investigation and clinical care that include novel devices, methods and algorithms with demonstrated or predicted potential to improve the understanding, monitoring and therapy of AF.
Areas covered in this Research Topic may include:
• Atrial arrhythmia mechanisms: excitation, propagation and remodeling.
• AF mapping devices and algorithms.
• Pacing, defibrillation, and ablation of AF.
• Electrocardiographic markers of AF.
• Analysis and characterization of AF progression.
• Signal processing and machine learning approaches for AF.
• Monitoring of AF in large populations using wearable devices.
• Multi-parametric AF detectors.
• Pharmacologic therapies of AF.
• Anticoagulation and stroke.
• Surgical approaches in AF.
Topic Editor Omer Berenfeld received research grants from Abbott, Medtronic, Inc. and CoreMap, Inc., was co-founder and Scientific Officer of Rhythm Solutions, Inc., is a non-active Research and
Development Director for S.A.S. Volta Medical, is a non-active consultant to Acutus Medical, and is a co-founder of Cor-Dx LLC. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regards to the
Research Topic subject.
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.