Arne van Hunnik

Post doc

Dr Arne van Hunnik studied medical biology with a specialisation of zoology at the Hogeschool Utrecht, The Netherlands. After his graduation, he started a position as a technician at the Department of Physiology at the Maastricht University. In the research groups of Prof. Prinzen and Prof. Allessie he specialised in large animal models covering a large range of specialties in the field of cardiology, e.g. electrophysiology, hemodynamics and pacing.

Arne van Hunnik became fascinated by the complexity of atrial conduction patterns during atrial fibrillation. Throughout the years, he was involved in the development of automated analysis. Furthermore, he was strongly involved unravelling the role of complex conduction patterns in relation to the stability of atrial fibrillation. He obtained his PhD in 2019, which focussed on the dynamical properties of electrical conduction on the heart during atrial fibrillation. To study this, he developed a method based on recurrence plots that allows the investigation of both short- and long-term properties of conduction patterns. Additionally, he studied the effect of antiarrhythmic drugs on these conduction properties.  

He is currently focussed on finding an improved antiarrhythmic drug strategy to terminate atrial fibrillation. New strategies can be found by targeting 'newly' discovered ion channels or by combining existing antiarrhythmic drugs. Furthermore, he investigates the transformation from stable to (drug-induced) unstable atrial fibrillation as this may give unique insights mechanisms of atrial fibrillation maintaining mechanisms.

To obtain this information he predominantly uses data obtained from goat model of atrial fibrillation but also includes computer models of atrial electrophysiology where possible.

Department of Physiology
Universiteitssingel 50, 6229 ER Maastricht
PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht
Room number: 3.108
T: +31(0)43 388 13 20

  • 2024
    • van Hunnik, A., Sobota, V., Zeemering, S., Opacic, D., Scaf, B., D'Alessandro, E., Oyaert, K., Kuiper, M., Diness, J. G., Sorensen, U. S., Milnes, J. T., van der Heyden, M. A. G., Jespersen, T., Schotten, U., & Verheule, S. (2024). Analysis of drug-induced and spontaneous cardioversions reveals similar patterns leading to termination of atrial fibrillation. Frontiers in physiology, 15, Article 1399037. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2024.1399037
    • Hermans, B., Özgül, O., Wolf, M., Gonçalves Marques, V., van Hunnik, A., Verheule, S., Chaldoupi, M., Linz, D., El Haddad, M., Duytschaever, M., Bonizzi, P., Vernooy, K., Knecht, S., Zeemering, S., & Schotten, U. (2024). Selecting repetitive focal and rotational activation patterns with the highest probability of being a source of atrial fibrillation. Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology Plus, 7, Article 100064. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmccpl.2024.100064
    • Ozgul, O., Marques, V. G., Hermans, B. JM., van Hunnik, A., Verheule, S., Gharaviri, A., Pezzuto, S., Auricchio, A., Schotten, U., Bonizzi, P., & Zeemering, S. (2024). High-density and high-coverage composite atrial activation maps: an in-silico validation study. Ieee Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2024.3439502
  • 2023
    • Winters, J., Isaacs, A., Zeemering, S., Kawczynski, M., Maesen, B., Maessen, J., Bidar, E., Boukens, B., Hermans, B., van Hunnik, A., Casadei, B., Fabritz, L., Chua, W., Sommerfeld, L., Guasch, E., Mont, L., Batlle, M., Hatem, S., Kirchhof, P., ... Schotten, U. (2023). Heart Failure, Female Sex, and Atrial Fibrillation Are the Main Drivers of Human Atrial Cardiomyopathy: Results From the CATCH ME Consortium. Journal of the American Heart Association, 12(22), Article e031220. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.123.031220
    • Carstensen, H., Nissen, S. D., Saljic, A., Hesselkilde, E. M., van Hunnik, A., Hohl, M., Sattler, S. M., Flogstad, C., Hopster-Iversen, C., Verheule, S., Bohm, M., Schotten, U., Jespersen, T., & Buhl, R. (2023). Long-Term Training Increases Atrial Fibrillation Sustainability in Standardbred Racehorses. Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research, 16(5), 1205-1219. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-023-10378-6
    • Ozgul, O., Hermans, B. JM., van Hunnik, A., Verheule, S., Schotten, U., Bonizzi, P., & Zeemering, S. (2023). High-density and high coverage composite mapping of repetitive atrial activation patterns. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 159(1), Article 106920. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2023.106920
  • 2022
    • Zink, M. D., Laureanti, R., Hermans, B. J. M., Pison, L., Verheule, S., Philippens, S., Pluymaekers, N., Vroomen, M., Hermans, A., van Hunnik, A., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Vernooy, K., Linz, D., Mainardi, L., Auricchio, A., Zeemering, S., & Schotten, U. (2022). Extended ECG Improves Classification of Paroxysmal and Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Based on P- and f-Waves. Frontiers in physiology, 13, Article 779826. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.779826
  • 2021
    • D'Alessandro, E., Scaf, B., van Oerle, R., van Nieuwenhoven, F. A., van Hunnik, A., Verheule, S., Schotten, U., Ten Cate, H., & Spronk, H. M. H. (2021). Thrombin generation by calibrated automated thrombography in goat plasma: Optimization of an assay. Research and practice in thrombosis and haemostasis, 5(8), Article e12620. https://doi.org/10.1002/rth2.12620