Section: New Results

A parameter optimization method to solve the ECG inverse problem

Existing electrocardiographic inverse models express their results either in terms of potentials on the heart surface or in terms of activation times in the heart. G. Ravon developed a new method which gives a potentially more useful answer in terms of three parameters of the underlying action potentials in the heart [27]. Since there are more parameters, care had to be taken to avoid overfitting. Tests on in-silico and ex-vivo data showed good results: the method gave better activation maps than the method of fundamental solutions to which it was compared, and fitted the repolarization phase of the ECG accurately. Figure  shows an example of an inversely estimated repolarization map.

Figure 3. Reference repolarization map and inversely estimated maps, using the newly developed method (middle) and the method of fundamental solutions to which it was compared (right). The new method results in more realistic patterns.