Application of a 3-D ischemic heart model derived from MRI data to the simulation of the electrical activity of the heart

Abstract

The propagation of the electrical activity of the heart is simulated over regions containing infarcted tissue. The method is applied to patients suffering from ischemia, in order to study the impact of the injury on the electrical function of the heart. The spatial distribution of the infarcted tissue and the shape of the endocardial and the epicardial surfaces are derived from MRI data using a semiautomatic method based on 3D Fourier parametric modeling. A 2D grid is then constructed which represents a selected part of the epicardial surface and contains information about the condition of the tissue. This grid is used as input to the simulation algorithm which estimates the ionic currents over time and the propagation of the electric impulse.