Hemodynamics Affects Factor XI/XII Anticoagulation Efficacy in Patient-Specific Left Atrial Models

Atrial fibrillation (AF) disrupts the circulation of blood through the left atrium (LA), and may result in relative stasis in the left atrial appendage (LAA), increasing thromboembolic risk. Anticoagulant agents can lower this risk, but currently used agents target the common pathway central to the coagulation cascade, increasing bleeding risk. Anticoagulants such as factor XI/XII inhibitors target the initial phase of the intrinsic pathway, with a significantly lower associated bleeding risk. However, these agents’ efficacy in preventing thrombosis in patient-specific flow conditions is not fully understood. We hypothesized that patient-specific flow patterns in the LA and LAA not only influence the risk of thrombosis but also the effectiveness of anticoagulation agents. We simulated blood flow and the intrinsic coagulation pathway in patient-specific LA anatomies with and without factor XI/XII inhibition to test this hypothesis. We considered thirteen patients in sinus rhythm and AF, several of whom had an LAA clot or a history of transient ischemic attacks. We used computational fluid dynamics based on 4D CT imaging and a detailed 32-species coagulation system to run 247 simulations for 13 patients, systematically sweeping over a wide range of factor XI/XII inhibition levels. Implementing a novel multi-fidelity coagulation modeling approach accelerated computations by two orders of magnitude, enabling the large number of simulations performed. Our simulations provide spatiotemporally resolved maps of thrombin concentration throughout the LA, showing it peaks inside the LAA. Coagulation metrics based on peak LAA thrombin dynamics suggested patients could be classified as non-coagulating, moderately and severely coagulating cases. Severely coagulating cases had significantly slower flow and higher residence time than moderately coagulating patients inside the LAA, requiring stronger factor XI/XII inhibition to blunt thrombin growth. The methodology outlined in this study has the potential to enable personalized assessments of coagulation risk and tailor anticoagulation therapy based on medical imaging.