Non-Contact Intracardiac Potential Mapping Using Mesh-Based and Meshless Inverse Solvers.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Electrophysiology
• Cardiac Electrophysiology

Background:

• Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia requiring effective treatment.
• Percutaneous catheter ablation is a standard treatment for AF.
• Current non-contact mapping methods for AF ablation have limitations in accuracy and coverage.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the accuracy of reconstructing atrial endocardial surface potentials using non-contact catheter electrograms.
• To evaluate the impact of catheter design and electrode placement on mapping accuracy.
• To assess the feasibility of real-time inverse potential mapping for AF ablation.

Main Methods:

• An in-silico approach comparing "ground-truth" potentials with inverse maps from virtual basket catheters.
• Analysis of mixed boundary conditions for mesh-based inverse problem formulations.
• Evaluation of meshless methods, including the Method of Fundamental Solutions, for real-time mapping.

Main Results:

• Accurate reconstruction of atrial endocardial surface potentials is achievable with non-contact catheters.
• Mapping accuracy improves with larger catheter dimensions and is stable when occupying >30% of atrial volume.
• Spatial electrode distribution is critical for resolving complex atrial potential fields in reentrant arrhythmias.
• Near real-time inverse potential mapping is feasible using meshless methods.

Conclusions:

• Non-contact catheter systems can accurately reconstruct atrial potentials for AF ablation.
• Optimized catheter design and advanced computational methods enhance mapping precision.
• This technology holds promise for improved real-time guidance during catheter ablation procedures.