A system for accurate interactive 3-D display of cardiac electrical activity

The system described comprises two programs, GETPIC3 and MAP3, which together allow the construction of an anatomically correct surface model from cross section anatomic images and the interactive dynamic display of cardiac electrical activity on the 3-D surface model. It uses 3-D models of epicardial and endocardial surfaces created with the GETPIC3 program from a sequence of 2-D images of a heart. The individual surfaces are triangulated and may be smoothed using a spline function. MAP3 displays activation times either as static isochronous maps or as dynamic time-since-last-activation maps. In the case of dynamic activation maps, surface color denotes the time since that area was activated. Potential distribution data may also be displayed dynamically. The program uses a mouse to control the real-time rotation of the model, and any surface can be hidden interactively for better viewing of the data