{
  "abstract": "Introduction Atrial fibrosis identified on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging has been proposed as a preprocedural imaging biomarker for patient selection for rhythm control interventions in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Whether atrial fibrosis is present in patients considered as ‘pre-AF’ is unknown.Methods and results We prospectively recruited 12 participants with pre-AF as defined by the Future Innovations in Novel Detection for Atrial Fibrillation (FIND-AF machine learning algorithm, without AF diagnosed during AF screening, and compared them to 25 participants with confirmed AF. All participants underwent CMR using a 3T system with left atrial fibrosis quantification and ADAS-3D left atrial image postprocessing software. Participants with pre-AF had smaller left atrial end-systolic (33.6±9.8 vs 43.0±17.0, p=0.003) and end-diastolic (16.5±8.7 vs 28.2±14.4, p=0.007) volumes, and higher left atrial ejection fraction (59.6±14.6 vs 40.7±17.5, p=0.005) than participants with AF. The extent of atrial fibrosis was not different between those with pre-AF and AF (borderzone (%) 5.2±5.0 vs 2.9±6.9, p=0.772; borderzone fibrosis (cm) 6.2±5.8 vs 6.8±10.7, p=0.927).Conclusion CMR identifies atrial fibrosis before manifest AF in patients with pre-AF as defined by a machine learning algorithm.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Institute of Data Analytics, University of Leeds, Leeds, England, UK",
        "Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Ali Wahab"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Institute of Data Analytics, University of Leeds, Leeds, England, UK",
        "Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK",
        "Department of Cardiology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Ramesh Nadarajah"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK",
        "Luliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania"
      ],
      "name": "Raluca Tomoaia"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Wasim Javed"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Institute of Data Analytics, University of Leeds, Leeds, England, UK",
        "Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Catherine Reynolds"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Cardiology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Sheena Bennet"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Institute of Data Analytics, University of Leeds, Leeds, England, UK",
        "Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Asad Bhatty"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital, Liverpool, UK",
        "Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark"
      ],
      "name": "Gregory Y H Lip"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "City St George’s University of London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "John Camm"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Queen Mary University of London Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Jianhua Wu"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Sven Plein"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Peter Swoboda"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Leeds Institute of Data Analytics, University of Leeds, Leeds, England, UK",
        "Department of Cardiology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Chris P Gale"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging-derived atrial fibrosis in patients with pre-atrial fibrillation",
  "uid": "1da13ff8-cc8a-5ea5-b92a-5f96cb34a333"
}