Time-space analysis of endocardial potentials mapped during antitachycardia surgery in patients with ventricular tachycardia

Computer mapping during antitachycardia surgery in patients with ventricular tachycardia offers a new dimension for precise localization of the arrhythmogenic area. However, until now in most mapping systems analysis is restricted to signal processing in the time dimension. Further information might be accessible by treating data as multi-dimensional both in time and space. The authors employed high-resolution frequency-wavenumber spectral estimation on endocardial balloon electrograms to analyze wavefronts of cardiac excitation in space and time. This allowed to determine local activation as a result of a propagating wavefront in the sensor array instead of time domain analysis of only one single channel. The method allows to extract parameters like speed, direction, power and shape of propagating waves present in a set of endocardial signals, thus providing a powerful tool for the analysis of complex activation sequences of cardiac excitation during antitachycardia surgery