The integration of electroanatomic maps with highly resolved computed tomography cardiac images plays an important role in the successful planning of the ablation procedure of arrhythmias. In this paper, we present and validate a fully-automated strategy for the registration and fusion of sparse, atrial endocardial electroanatomic maps (CARTO maps) with detailed left atrial (LA) anatomical reconstructions segmented from a pre-procedural MDCT scan. Registration is accomplished by a parameterized geometric transformation of the CARTO points and by a stochastic search of the best parameter set which minimizes the misalignment between transformed CARTO points and the LA surface. The subsequent fusion of electrophysiological information on the registered CT atrium is obtained through radial basis function interpolation. The algorithm is validated by simulation and by real data from 14 patients referred to CT imaging prior to the ablation procedure. Results are presented, which show the validity of the algorithmic scheme as well as the accuracy and reproducibility of the integration process. The obtained results encourage the application of the integration method in post-intervention ablation assessment and basic AF research and suggest the development for real-time applications in catheter guiding during ablation intervention.

Results on two-particle angular correlations are presented in proton-proton collisions at center of mass energies of 7 TeV, over a broad range of pseudorapidity and azimuthal angle. In very high-multiplicity events at 7 TeV, a pronounced structure emerges in the two-dimensional correlation function for particle pairs with intermediate p T of 1-3 GeV/c, in the kinematic region 2.0 < | η| < 4.8 and small φ. This structure, which has not been observed in pp collisions before, is similar to what is known as the 'ridge' in heavy-ion collisions. It is not predicted by commonly used proton-proton Monte Carlo models and is not seen in lower multiplicity pp collisions. Updated studies of this new effect as a function of particle transverse momentum, rapidity and event characteristics are shown.

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