Non-invasive imaging of ventricular activation during pacing and arrhythmia: Methods and validation

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cardiology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Cardiovascular disease remains a major global health concern.
• Sudden cardiac arrest affects hundreds of thousands annually in the U.S.
• Radio-frequency ablation is a common treatment for ventricular arrhythmia, but non-invasive imaging can provide crucial insights.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel non-invasive imaging method called Cardiac Electrical Sparse Imaging (CESI).
• To assess CESI's accuracy and robustness in imaging cardiac electrical activity, particularly during arrhythmias.

Main Methods:

• Developed a novel temporal sparse-based imaging technique, CESI.
• Validated the method using computer simulations and animal studies (canine).
• Evaluated imaging accuracy, robustness, and temporal resolution under various conditions and pathologies.

Main Results:

• CESI achieved high accuracy in human realistic simulations (CC=0.8, RE=0.2, LE=7 mm).
• Demonstrated good accuracy in canine simultaneous mapping studies.
• Maintained full temporal resolution for cardiac activation sequences (<0.04 RRE) during arrhythmias like premature ventricular complex and ventricular tachycardia.

Conclusions:

• CESI shows excellent performance for non-invasive imaging of cardiac activation during various arrhythmias.
• The technique has significant potential to assist in the clinical management of lethal ventricular arrhythmias.
• CESI leverages temporal sparsity in cellular electrophysiology for improved imaging accuracy and robustness.