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(Circulation. 2000;102:2152.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Basic Science Reports

A Noninvasive Imaging Modality for Cardiac Arrhythmias

John E. Burnes, PhD; Bruno Taccardi, MD; Yoram Rudy, PhD

From the Cardiac Bioelectricity Research and Training Center (CBRTC) and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (J.E.B., Y.R.), and the Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City (B.T.).

Correspondence to Yoram Rudy, Director, Cardiac Bioelectricity Center, Wickenden 509, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106-7207. E-mail yxr@po.cwru.edu yxr{at}po.cwru.edu

Background—The last decade witnessed an explosion of information regarding the genetic, molecular, and mechanistic basis of heart disease. Translating this information into clinical practice requires the development of novel functional imaging modalities for diagnosis, localization, and guided intervention. A noninvasive modality for imaging cardiac arrhythmias is not yet available. Present electrocardiographic methods cannot precisely localize a ventricular tachycardia (VT) or its key reentrant circuit components. Recently, we developed a noninvasive electrocardiographic imaging modality (ECGI) that can reconstruct epicardial electrophysiological information from body surface potentials. Here, we extend its application to image reentrant arrhythmias.

Methods and Results—Epicardial potentials were recorded during VT with a 490 electrode sock during an open chest procedure in 2 dogs with 4-day-old myocardial infarctions. Body surface potentials were generated from these epicardial potentials in a human torso model. Realistic geometry errors and measurement noise were added to the torso data, which were then used to noninvasively reconstruct epicardial isochrones, electrograms, and potentials with excellent accuracy. ECGI reconstructed the reentry pathway and its key components, including (1) the central common pathway, (2) the VT exit site, (3) lines of block, and (4) regions of slow and fast conduction. This allowed for detailed characterization of the reentrant circuit morphology.

Conclusions—ECGI can noninvasively image arrhythmic activation on the epicardium during VT to identify and localize key components of the arrhythmogenic pathway that can be effective targets for antiarrhythmic intervention.

Key Words: electrocardiography • myocardial infarction • reentry • tachycardia

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