[Methodologic problems in the use of dynamic magnetic mapping of the heart]

Dynamic magnetic maps have been constructed with the help of a magnetocardiograph, based on a superconductive quantum interferometric transducer, for 19 normal subjects, 12 patients with postinfarction cardiosclerosis, 5 patients with ventricular extrasystoles, and 1 patient with left-ventricular hypertrophy. A correlation between general patterns and ventricular depolarization phases of normal subjects' maps was demonstrated, using a biophysical myocardial excitation wave model as an even layer of current dipoles. Methods are proposed for the localization of ectopic pacemaker, postinfarction scars and hypertrophic myocardial areas within the same model.