title: Estimation of cardiac conduction velocities using small data sets.
abstract: Cardiac surface conduction velocities could provide valuable information about the speed and angle of a propagating electrical wave front. It would be advantageous to develop catheter-based velocity mapping devices to improve the visualization of cardiac arrhythmias. However, catheter tip size is limited to < or = 2.5 mm in diameter, restricting the number and size of electrodes that can be placed on a catheter tip. We address the feasibility of estimating conduction speed and angle from small data sets suitable for recording from a catheter device in a standard clinical environment. We estimated cardiac conduction velocities from data subsets of 4-7 closely spaced electrograms, and then compared these estimates to velocities estimated from a larger reference grid. We studied 137 ventricular beats and 17,756 velocity vectors from six swine hearts. Average differences in angle between the two estimates were 0.4 degrees +/- 16 degrees while average differences in speed were 5% +/- 33%. These angle and speed differences provide an initial quantitative assessment of velocity accuracy for the purposes of catheter-based vector mapping.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Tamara N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.forename: Edward K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Rhee
authors.forename: Dana H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.forename: John K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Triedman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018780:Body Surface Potential Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002408:Catheters, Indwelling; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000502:physiology*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013552:Swine; D016276:Ventricular Function