title: Quantitative panoramic imaging of epicardial electrical activity.
abstract: Fluorescent imaging with voltage- and/or calcium-sensitive dyes has revolutionized cardiac physiology research. Here we present improved panoramic imaging for optically mapping electrical activity from the entire epicardium of the Langendorff-perfused rabbit heart. Combined with reconstruction of the 3D heart surface, the functional data can be conveniently visualized on the realistic heart geometry. Methods to quantify the panoramic data set are introduced by first describing a simple approach to mesh the heart in regular grid form. The regular grid mesh provides substrate for easy translation of previously available non-linear dynamics methods for 2D array data. It also simplifies the unwrapping of curved three-dimensional surface to 2D surface for global epicardial visualization of the functional data. The translated quantification methods include activation maps (isochrones), phase maps, phase singularity, and electric stimulus-induced virtual electrode polarization (VEP) maps. We also adapt a method to calculate the conduction velocities on the global epicardial surface by taking the curvature of the heart surface into account.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1097, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.forename: Crystal M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Ripplinger
authors.forename: Philip V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Bayly
authors.forename: Igor R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Efimov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004554:Electric Countershock; D022062:Electrophysiologic Techniques, Cardiac; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000502:physiology; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D010496:Pericardium / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes