Diagnosis of high posterior infarction: experimental study through the use of body surface isopotential maps

This investigation was designed to diagnose high posterior infarction easily through the use of body surface isopotential maps. High posterior infarction was experimentally caused by ligation of the branch of the circumflex artery of the canine left coronary artery. Each dog had a series of maps recorded before and four weeks after experimentally induced myocardial infarction. The common features of maps in high posterior infarction are: 1) The positive area expanded into the dorsal surface so slowly that, in the middle stage of the ventricular depolarization, a large area of the dorsal surface was still covered by the negative area. 2) from the middle to the late stage, the absolute value of the minimum significantly decreased and absolute potential of the dorsal surface also significantly decreased. In conclusion, we propose that it is possibile to diagnose high posterior infarction through the use of maps.