Panoramic Optical Mapping Setup in a Langendorff Perfused Rabbit Heart for the Study of Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice, affecting up to 2% of the world’s population and becoming an important public health problem. Basic and clinical research has significantly improved the diagnosis and treatment of AF. Current commercial electrical mapping systems are prone to errors and it is challenging to characterize and locate the AF arrhythmogenic sources correctly for certain types of AF [1]. Due to its non-invasive and high spatiotemporal resolution, optical mapping has helped researchers to improve current knowledge of AF. This study presents preliminary results from three rabbit’s heart experiments, obtained with a Langendorff perfusion setup assembled to a panoramic optical mapping setup, with three optical cameras and high-power LEDs, automatically managed by an in-house developed user graphical unit interface (GUI). Fluorescence obtained after dye excitation was recorded using three special cameras, and data was processed to present the normalized optical action potential (OAP) maps. A 3D heart surface reconstruction equipment records a series of images around the whole heart to obtain a 3D mesh and project the normalized OAP maps.