A coupled heart-torso framework for cardiac electrocardiographic simulation

The existing works of electrocardiogram (ECG) simulation generally use a static or so called ”one-way” electromechanical coupled heart model. However, electrical and mechanical activities of the heart are inter-dependent, and realistic ECG simulation can only be achieved when such coupled relationship is considered. In this paper, we propose an electromechanical coupled heart model that includes both electromechanical coupling and mecha-noelectrical feedback. The model contains four components: cardiac electrophysiological model, cardiac electromechanical coupling, cardiac mechanics model and cardiac mechanoelectrical feedback. For ECG simulation, the model is incorporated into a coupled heart-torso framework, under which the heart is represented by mesh-free nodes and the torso is represented by boundary elements. A direct projection from volumetric transmembrane potential maps (TMPs) to body surface potential maps (BSPs) can be established through meshfree-BEM method. We calculate ECG signals by the proposed framework and compare them with simulation results of a static heart model, and find the amplitude of T-wave is increased and action potential duration is slightly shortened due to the electromechanical coupled property.