Confirmation of novel noninvasive high-density electrocardiographic mapping with electrophysiology study: implications for therapy.
BACKGROUND
Twelve lead ECGs have limited value in precisely identifying atrial and ventricular activation during arrhythmias, including accessory atrioventricular conduction activation. The aim of this study was to report a single center's clinical experience validating a novel, noninvasive, whole heart, beat-by-beat, 3-dimensional mapping technology with invasive electrophysiological studies, including ablation, where applicable.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Using an electrocardiographic mapping (ECM) system in 27 patients, 3-dimensional epicardial activation maps were generated from >250 body surface ECGs using heart-torso geometry obtained from computed tomographic images. ECM activation maps were compared with clinical diagnoses, and confirmed with standard invasive electrophysiological studies mapping. (1) In 6 cases of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, ECM accurately identified the ventricular insertion site of an accessory atrioventricular connection. (2) In 10 patients with premature ventricular complexes, ECM accurately identified their ventricular site of origin in 8 patients. In 2 of 10 patients transient premature ventricular complex suppression was observed during ablation at the site predicted by ECM as the earliest. (3) In 10 cases of atrial tachycardia/atrial flutter, ECM accurately identified the chamber of origin in all 10, and distinguished isthmus from nonisthmus dependent atrial flutter. (4) In 1 patient with sustained exercise induced ventricular tachycardia, ECM accurately identified the focal origin in the left ventricular outflow tract.


CONCLUSIONS
ECM successfully provided valid activation sequence maps obtained noninvasively in a variety of rhythm disorders that correlated well with invasive electrophysiological studies.