Recording of abnormal late ventricular activity by high-resolution magnetocardiography

High-resolution magnetocardiography (HR-MCG) is a new noninvasive technique for detection of very low-amplitude magnetic fields generated by the electric activity of the heart. We studied 11 patients with documented sustained ventricular tachycardia after myocardial infarction (VT group), 11 patients with old myocardial infarction without ventricular tachycardia (MI group) and 11 normal controls (N group) with HR-MCG and high-resolution electrocardiography (HR-ECG). After averaging and high-pass filtering (25 Hz, 40 Hz, 60 Hz and 80 Hz) the XYZ leads of HR-ECG were combined to vector magnitude and the magnetic recordings from 3 x 3 grid locations were enveloped with Hilbert transformation. Then the QRS duration and the root-mean-square (RMS) amplitude of the last 40 ms, 50 ms and 60 ms of the QRS were calculated. The QRS duration was significantly longer in the VT group compared to the MI and the N group both in HR-MCG and HR-ECG. Also the RMS values were clearly smaller in the VT group with both methods. There were no significant differences in the diagnostic power of these two methods. The 25 Hz high-pass filtering separated best the VT group from the MI group and the N group. In conclusion HR-MCG is a new non-invasive method for identification of patients at risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction.