Cardiac action potential wavefront tracking using optical mapping.

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Biophysics
• Diabetology

Background:

• Diabetes significantly impacts cardiovascular health, yet its effect on cardiac electrical conduction remains poorly quantified.
• Existing knowledge gaps necessitate precise methods to measure cardiac conduction velocity in diabetic conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel technique for tracking cardiac action potential wavefronts.
• To accurately measure total activation time and cardiac conduction velocity in the heart.
• To compare conduction velocities between diabetic and control rat hearts.

Main Methods:

• Developed a technique to extract action potential wavefronts and calculate instantaneous and average conduction velocity.
• Validated the method by comparing measured activation times with previously reported values (R(2) = 0.875).
• Applied the technique to measure and compare cardiac conduction velocity in diabetic and control rat models.

Main Results:

• The developed technique reliably reproduces activation times, confirming its accuracy.
• Diabetic rat hearts demonstrated significantly slower average conduction velocity (0.47 ± 0.02 m/s) compared to control hearts (0.55 ± 0.02 m/s).
• A statistically significant difference (p = 0.001) was observed in conduction velocities between the two groups.

Conclusions:

• The novel technique provides a reliable method for assessing cardiac conduction velocity.
• Diabetic hearts exhibit impaired electrical conduction, evidenced by reduced conduction velocity.
• This method offers a new criterion for evaluating cardiac function in health and disease, particularly in diabetes.