Background: The actual task of electrocardiographic examinations is to increase the reliability of diagnosing the condition of the heart. Within the framework of this task, an important direction is the solution of the inverse problem of electrocardiography, based on the processing of electrocardiographic signals of multichannel cardio leads at known electrode coordinates in these leads (Titomir et al. Noninvasiv electrocardiotopography, 2003), (Macfarlane et al. Comprehensive Electrocardiology, 2nd ed. (Chapter 9), 2011).
Results: In order to obtain more detailed information about the electrical activity of the heart, we carry out a reconstruction of the distribution of equivalent electrical sources on the heart surface. In this area, we hold reconstruction of the equivalent sources during the cardiac cycle at relatively low hardware cost. ECG maps of electrical potentials on the surface of the torso (TSPM) and electrical sources on the surface of the heart (HSSM) were studied for different times of the cardiac cycle. We carried out a visual and quantitative comparison of these maps in the presence of pathological regions of different localization. For this purpose we used the model of the heart electrical activity, based on cellular automata.
Conclusions: The model of cellular automata allows us to consider the processes of heart excitation in the presence of pathological regions of various sizes and localization. It is shown, that changes in the distribution of electrical sources on the surface of the epicardium in the presence of pathological areas with disturbances in the conduction of heart excitation are much more noticeable than changes in ECG maps on the torso surface.
Keywords: Cellular automata; Electric potential; Electrocardiographic leads; Equivalent electric sources; Heart; Maps of distributions; Multichannel; Reconstruction; Torso.