Body surface derivative electrocardiographic mapping

The authors have developed a new approach to imaging cardiac electrical activity by measuring and visualizing body surface distributions of the higher-order spatial derivative of the potential. Numerical algorithms have developed to construct body surface maps of the spatial derivative of the potential from potential data. Computer simulation studies have been conducted to test the feasibility of this approach. Experimental exploration has also been made in healthy human subjects. The authors' experimental and theoretical studies indicate the superior performance of the body surface higher-order derivative electrocardiographic mapping for localizing and imaging spatially separated cardiac electrical sources.