1. Research
  2. MAESTRIA - AFNET 10
  3. Further Information

Further Information

MAESTRIA is an EU-funded consortium including 18 partners:

  • 12 academic institutions with a strong focus on clinical data integration and artificial intelligence research,
  • 5 biotech companies (SMEs) and
  • 1 large imaging company

from 6 countries (France, Germany, Greece, Spain, The Netherlands & The United Kingdom), who are at the forefront of research and medical care of AF and stroke patients funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme (grant number 965286).

The Atrial Fibrillation NETwork (AFNET) is one of the 18 partners institutions in this European Consortium.

Objective:

The MAESTRIA project aims to develop and validate the first integrative diagnostic digital platform for atrial cardiomyopathy diagnosis. This platform will be designed to provide support for improved diagnostic accuracy that increases effectiveness and efficiency of treatments, as well as prevention of the complications of atrial cardiomyopathy, such as atrial fibrillation and stroke.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke are major health care problems in Europe. They are most often the clinical expression of atrial cardiomyopathy, which is under-recognised due to the lack of specific diagnostic tools. Multidisciplinary research and stratified approaches are urgently needed to prevent, diagnose, and treat AF and stroke and preempt the AF-related threat to healthy ageing in Europe.

The MAESTRIA project team focuses on developing novel approaches for timely detection of atrial myopathy to improve care management and identifying novel therapeutic targets for personalised medicine of AF and stroke.

MAESTRIA addresses:

  • Highly personalised diagnosis by combining research results on genomic, inflammation and metabolic disorders; all involved in the progression of atrial cardiomyopathy, incorporating AF and stroke in a novel, holistic and multidisciplinary patient health pathway. MAESTRIA has the potential of preventing excess deaths, stroke, and disability in 1.5-2% of the European population, and 12-15% of Europe’s octogenarians.
  • Integration of data available from various sources by integrating mechanistic understanding of the cardiomyopathic substrate with cutting-edge imaging techniques, electrophysiological investigations and artificial intelligence approaches. Risk stratification in patients with AF will be refined, potential new therapeutic approaches to modify the natural history of AF and treatment rationalised.
  • Development and deployment of a clinically applicable digital diagnosis platform by contributing to the development of a precision medicine tool set for the contemporary management of AF and stroke across Europe and beyond. MAESTRIA will build an open-access digital platform for clinicians and patients in Europe to inform them about risk based on the outcome of our investigations.

 

Study design

MAESTRIA-AFNET 10 is an international, multi-centre, non-interventional, observational registry which includes patients with different types of AF.

Study objectives:

  • Enrolment of a representative cross-section of AF patients in Europe
  • Detailed analysis of clinical and relevant parameters (digitalised ECG, cardiac imaging, blood biomarkers) that could be used during clinical practise for the diagnosis of atrial cardiomyopathy and patient outcome. The datasets will be assessed including but not limited to AI algorithms to characterize specific subgroups of AF or define novel outcome predictors. 

 

AFNET is responsible of the development of a novel specific prospective cohort (MAESTRIA-AFNET 10) which will include approximately 600 patients with different clinical manifestation of Atrial Fibrillation (AF): paroxysmal, persistent and permanent AF. All patients with diagnosed AF will be collected at about 30 sites in those European countries where MAESTRIA partners are located (France, Germany, Greece, Spain, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom).

This prospective cohort is intended to include:

  • 200 patients with paroxysmal AF (without AF episodes longer than 1 week and no need of cardioversion)
  • 200 patients with persistent AF (AF episodes longer than 1 week or AF episodes, which required cardioversion for termination).
  • 200 patients with permanent AF.

This will allow to enrol a representative cross-section of AF patients in Europe. 

MAESTRIA partners

  1. Sorbonne Université (SU), France
  2. Assistance Publique Hopitaux de Paris (AP-HP), France
  3. The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford (UOXF), UK
  4. The University of Birmingham (UoB), UK
  5. Atrial Fibrillation NETwork (AFNET), Germany
  6. Universitaetsklinikum Essen (UDE), Germany
  7. Uniersiteit Maastricht (MU), Netherlands
  8. Ethniko Kai Kapodistriako Panepistimio Athinon (UoA), Greece
  9. Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), Spain
  10. The General Hospital Corporation (MGH), USA  (only participation in MAESTRIA)
  11. IMT Transfert (IMT), France
  12. Centre Integre Universitaire de Sante et de Services Sociaux del Estrie-Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke (CRCHUS), Canada (only participation in MAESTRIA)
  13. Siemens Healthcare GMBH (SHS), Germany
  14. Caristo Diagnostics Limited (Caristo), UK
  15. Owkin France (Owkin), France
  16. IDOVEN 1903 SL (IDOVEN), Spain
  17. Preventicus GMBH (PREV), Germany
  18. Yourrhythmics (YourRhythmics), Netherlands  

If you are interested in recruiting patients for this trial, please contact the AFNET office (maestria@af-net.eu).

More details on the project can be found on the MAESTRIA website: https://maestria-h2020.com/