[Magnetocardiographic diagnostic of late fields. Current state and future perspectives]

The occurence of ventricular late potentials in the signal averaged surface ECG is an indicator for slow electrical excitation in myocardial tissue prone to arrhythmias. Signal averaged surface ECG is performed for identification of patients with ventricular late potentials who have a high risk for life threatening arrhythmias. Since every electrical field is combined with a magnetic field, established methods of the signal averaged surface ECG were applied on recorded magnetocardiograms of patients. The incidences and details of late ventricular activity in the signal averaged electrocardiogram (ventricular late potentials) were compared with those in the magnetocardiogram (ventricular late fields). A close correlation of the two different methods was found. The magnetocardiogram has the option for the determination of the site of origin of magnetic signals three-dimensionally. In the future, this method may help to find areas of slow conduction for ablative procedures to cure patients with a high risk for malignant arrhythmias.