Design of a multi-electrode array to measure cardiac conductivities

Abstract

Accurate determination of cardiac tissue parameters is essential in bidomain models that simulate the electrical activity of the heart and thereby contribute to understanding cardiovascular disease. Recent experimental work indicated the need for six parameters, which measure electrical conductivity in two domains (extracellular and intracellular), along and across the cardiac fibres within a sheet and also between sheets. This is in contrast to the available experimentally determined conductivities, which are sets of four values, where it is assumed that conductivities across the fibres within a sheet and between the fibre sheets are equal. This study presents a mathematical model that incorporates six bidomain conductivities. It also discusses the design of a multi-electrode array and inversion method to retrieve these conductivities (as well as a value for fibre rotation between the sheets). The sensitivity of electrode spacing in the array design is investigated. Subject class: 92C30. © Austral. Mathematical Soc. 2013.