Coupled meshfree-BEM platform for electrocardiographic simulation: Modeling and validations

Abstract

The foremost premise for the success of noninvasive volumetric myocardial transmembrane (TMP) imaging from body surface potential (BSP) recordings is a realistic yet efficient electrocardiographic model which relates volumetric myocardial TMP distributions to BSP distributions. With a view towards the inverse problem, appropriate model simplifications should be emphasized to balance the accuracy of the model with the feasibility of the inversion. In this paper, we present a novel coupled meshfree-BEM platform to represent the combined heart-torso structure and derive the associated TMP-to-BSP models. The numerical accuracy and convergency of the presented approach is verified against analytic solutions on a synthetic geometry. The associated simplifications are justified by comparing models at different level of complexity, which further demonstrates the benefits of homogeneous torso assumption in the inverse problem. Initial simulation experiments on a realistic heart-torso structure further show the physiological plausibility of the presented approach. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.