Contribution of the Left Anterior Myocardium to the Body Surface Potentials in Case of Apical Ectopic Beat

The present paper describes a study where effects of anterior myocardium on body surface potentials were investigated. The study combines numerical lead field analysis combined with cardiac automata model. Electric fields are calculated with finite difference method in a 3-D model of male thorax. The cardiac activation applied in the study is an ectopic beat originating in the apex. The correlations and mean differences between signal generated by anterior segments of left ventricle and signal generated by both ventricles were analysed for 117 leads. The results show that there are leads which have high correlation (>0.9) with low the relative mean difference (<0.2) between the signals generated by anterior segments and signals generated by whole ventricles. These electrode locations would be optimal to monitor the activation of anterior segments when ectopic beats originate in apex.