The University of Utah’s DE-MRI Determinant of Successful Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation (DECAAF) study, a multi-center clinical trial spanning across three continents, has been successfully recruiting patients over the past year.

As I wrote in an earlier blog, our research at the University of Utah has shown significant and promising results in applying late gadolinium enhanced (delayed enhancement) cardiac MRI (DE-MRI) technology for non-invasive scar assessment in the left atrium (LA). DECAAF will expand our experience with DE-MRI image acquisition and processing in the management of atrial fibrillation (AF) and has three specific aims:

• Acquire DE-MRI scans of the left atrium in AF patients and quantify the extent of structural remodeling or fibrosis.
• Acquire DE-MRI scans during follow-up appointments post-catheter ablation, quantify the extent of ablation related scarring, and describe its distribution.
• Evaluate the relative contribution of clinical patient characteristics, pre-ablation fibrosis and post-ablation scarring in determining the long-term success of catheter ablation in maintaining normal rhythm.

To date, participating medical centers from North America, Europe and Australia have successfully scanned the left atrium of patients using the novel MRI sequences developed at the University of Utah. DECAAF trial has helped us to establish the DE-MRI concept at these multiple centers and has validated that good quality images of the left atrium can be obtained elsewhere in an unbiased manner. To learn more about our current research and upcoming research as a follow-up to the DECAAF study, we invite you to visit our CARMA website at http://healthsciences.utah.edu/carma/

For more information about site participation in the DECAAF study, please contact Kavitha Damal, Clinical Research Manager, at kavitha.damal@carma.utah.edu

Nassir F. Marrouche, MD is the Executive Director of the Comprehensive Arrhythmia Research & Management Center, Director of Electrophysiology Laboratories, and Director of the Atrial Fibrillation Program at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology.

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