The Forward Problem of Electrocardiography

The forward problem of electrocardiography involves compu ting the potentials and currents within the body from a known electrical potential distribution or activation seq u nce in the heart. This paper details an efficient computati on l model of the human torso for use in electrocardiographic pro blems. The model uses a combined finite element/boundary element method which uses bicubic Hermite basis functions. The model geometry is obtained by fitting to data points measured from magnetic resonance images (MRI) using a non-l i ear fitting procedure. Simple forward simulations of the normal heartbeat are used to calculate standard `12 lead' el ectrocardiographic (ECG) signals and body surface potenti al

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