Atrial fibrillation is the most common persistent cardiac arrhythmia with a increasing prevalence. Currently available therapeutic options are characterized by a lack of efficiency due to an insufficient specificity of their targets.

We developed a new method to prevent irregular excitation through a targeted optimization of the cardiac tissue conductivity and thereby suppress atrial fibrillation. The newly developed procedure is not based on local myocardial destruction as current ablation techniques but uses a tattooing procedure, in which lines of increased tissue conductivity are additionally created in the atria. In order to terminate irregular excitations in the atria, lines of increased tissue conductivity should serve as equipotential lines.

The concept will be tested in vivo using an established large animal model of atrial fibrillation in the domestic pig.

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