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Role of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Atrial Fibrillation Ablation

  • Arrhythmia (D Spragg, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion statement

Ablation therapy is widely used for treatment of drug-resistant atrial fibrillation (AF). Ablation success for AF, however, is relatively low, often requiring repeated procedures for long-term suppression of the arrhythmia. Utilization of imaging techniques that visualize cardiac anatomy, function, and tissue characteristics may improve ablation results. Compared to other imaging modalities, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has several advantages, including the lack of ionizing radiation and unsurpassed soft tissue resolution. Chamber morphology images can be registered onto electroanatomic maps acquired during the procedure, thus improving procedural safety and efficacy. In addition, the ability of CMR to characterize myocardial tissues may optimize patient selection for ablation and thromboembolic risk stratification. Post-procedure CMR can be used to detect potential complications, and with improved resolution, it has the potential to assess the integrity of ablation lesions. In this paper we will review the role of CMR in the pre-ablation diagnostic workup of AF patients as well as during and after catheter ablation.

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. Roy Beinart declares no potential conflicts of interest.

Dr. Saman Nazarian is a scientific advisor to and principal investigator for research funding to Johns Hopkins University from Biosense-Webster Inc. Dr. Nazarian’s work is also funded by National Institutes of Health grants K23HL089333 and R01HL116280. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine/Cardiology, Johns Hopkins University, 702 Rutland Avenue, Traylor 903, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA

    Roy Beinart MD & Saman Nazarian MD, PhD

  2. Heart Institute, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Roy Beinart MD

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Carnegie 592A, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA

    Saman Nazarian MD, PhD

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Beinart, R., Nazarian, S. Role of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Atrial Fibrillation Ablation. Curr Treat Options Cardio Med 16, 316 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-014-0316-3

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