Personalisation of a 3D Macroscopic Cardiac Electrophysiology Model for Simulation of Induced Ischemic Ventricular Tachycardia

Despite recent efforts in cardiac electrophysiology modelling [1], there is still a strong need to make macroscopic models usable in planning and assistance of the clinical procedures. This requires model personalisation i.e. estimation of patient-specific model parameters and computations compatible with clinical constraints. Fast macroscopic models allow a quick estimation of the tissue conductivity, but are often unreliable in prediction of arrhythmias [2]. On the other side, complex biophysical models are quite expensive for the tissue conductivity estimation, but are well suited for arrhythmia predictions. Here we present a coupled personalisation framework, which combines the benefits of the two models. A fast Eikonal model is used to estimate the conductivity parameters, which are then used to set the parameters of a biophysical model, the Mitchell-Schaeffer (MS) model. Additional parameters related to Action Potential Duration (APD) and APD restitution curves for the tissue are estimated for the MS model [3]. This framework is applied to a clinical dataset provided with an hybrid X-Ray/MR imaging on an ischemic patient shown in figure 1. The estimated parameters using the described framework are shown in figure 2. A qualitative comparison of measured data with model simulations is shown in figure 3. This personalised MS Model is then used for in silico simulation of clinical Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) stimulation protocol [4] to predict the induction of VT, as shown in figure 4. This proof of concept opens up possibilities of using VT induction modelling directly in the intervention room, in order to plan the radio-frequency ablation lines.