Cardiac electrical activity imaging of patients with CRBBB or CLBBB in magnetocardiography

Abstract

A new method for the imaging of cardiac electrical activity in patients with complete right bundle branch block (CRBBB) or complete left bundle branch block (CLBBB) is investigated using magnetocardiographic recordings of the surface of the body. This is based on the assumption that an equivalent single-current dipole moves along the unblocked bundle branch, whose position in the measurement plane is expressed in terms of the maximum and minimum, as well as the maximum gradient value of the measured magnetic field. The trajectory of the moving dipole on the measurement plane is indicative of the excitation conduction of the CRBBB or CLBBB subject during ventricular depolarization and repolarization, which is deduced by comparing each change between the dipole moment and the maximum current density in a corresponding pseudo-current density map. In summary, this method can distinguish CRBBB from CLBBB subjects by means of the dipole depth and two dipole moment components. The possibility of visualizing the excitation conduction in a CRBBB or CLBBB subject during ventricular depolarization and repolarization is then discussed.