Multipolar Electrograms: A New Configuration That Increases the Measurement Accuracy of Intracardiac Signals

Accurate measurements of intracardiac electrograms (EGMs) remain a clinical challenge because of the suboptimal attenuation of far-field potentials. Multielectrode mapping catheters provide an opportunity to construct multipolar instead of bipolar EGMs for rejecting common far-field potentials recorded from a multivectorial space.

The purpose of this study was to develop a multipolar EGM and compare its characteristics to those of bipolar EGMs METHODS: Using a 36-electrode array catheter (Optrell-36, Biosense Webster), a far-field component was mathematically constructed from clusters of electrodes surrounding each inspected electrode. This component was subtracted from the unipolar waveform to produce a local unipolar, referred to as a "multipolar EGM." The performance of multipolar EGMs was evaluated in 7 swine with healed anteroseptal infarction.

Multipolar EGMs proved superior in attenuating far-field potentials in infarct border zones, increasing the near-field to far-field ratio from 0.92 ± 0.2 to 2.25 ± 0.3 (P < 0.001). Removal of far-field components reduced the voltage amplitude (P < 0.001) and enlarged the infarct surface area (P = 0.02), aligning more closely with histological findings. Of 379 EGMs with ≥20 ms activation time difference between bipolar and multipolar EGMs, 95.3% (361 of 379) were accurately annotated using multipolar EGMs, while annotation based on bipolar EGM was predominantly made on far-field components.

Multielectrode array catheters provide a unique platform for constructing multipolar EGMs. This new EGM may be beneficial for "purifying" local potentials within a complex electrical field, resulting in more accurate voltage and activation maps.