Diego Osorio Fortea

PhD Student
Electronic Engineering Department
Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain)

Research line: Biosignal Analysis
PhD Supervisor: José J. Rieta

Doctoral Thesis

Development and Application of Local Activation Waves Detection in the Understanding of Atrial Fibrillation Electrograms

This doctoral research focuses on detecting local activation waves (LAWs) in atrial electrograms recorded during atrial fibrillation. These signals capture electrical activity within the atria, but highly fragmented recordings can make individual activations difficult to identify. The goal is to develop more robust detection methods that help characterize the arrhythmia during catheter ablation procedures.

The research plan combines signal preprocessing, including wavelet-based noise reduction, with new detection methods for single-channel and multichannel recordings. It examines how filtering and signal transformations can improve activation detection, how electrograms can be classified by their degree of fragmentation, and how delays between channels can provide information about wavefront propagation.

The proposed methods will be compared with established detectors using recordings from 50 patients undergoing atrial fibrillation ablation. Their performance will also be assessed through estimates of atrial cycle length and analysis of activation-wave morphology. The aim is to improve the characterization of atrial electrical activity and support research toward more precise ablation targeting. This description summarizes the doctoral research plan and its objectives.