title: Multichannel biomagnetic system for study of electrical activity in the brain and heart.
abstract: The authors designed a multichannel system for noninvasive measurement of the extremely weak magnetic fields generated by the brain and the heart. It uses a flat array of 37 superconducting magnetic field-sensing coils connected to sophisticated superconducting quantum interference devices. To prevent interference from external electromagnetic fields, the system is operated inside a shielded room. Complete sets of coherent data, even from spontaneous events, can be recorded. System performance was evaluated with phantom measurements and evoked-response studies. A spatial resolution of a few millimeters and a temporal resolution of a millisecond were obtained. First results in patients with partial epilepsy and investigations of the cardiac conductive pathway indicate that biomagnetism is now ready for a systematic clinical evaluation. Interpretation of measurements was facilitated by highlighting biomagnetically localized electrical activity in three-dimensional digital magnetic resonance images.
authors.affiliation: Central Research Laboratories, Siemens, Erlangen, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hoenig
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Reichenberger
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abraham-Fuchs
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Moshage
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oppelt
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Stefan
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weikl
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wirth
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000175:diagnosis; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D014927:Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis