The noninvasive electrical mapping of reanimated large mammalian hearts

Electroanatomical mapping systems are being utilized clinically for locating arrhythmias within a given patient's heart. Today, employed endocardial mapping systems are invasive and require extensive set-up time. Epicardial mapping systems, like CardioInsight^TM from Medtronic, are noninvasive but require co-registration of electrodes to the heart, e.g. via a required Computed Tomography (CT) scan. This system has been used both clinically and in several laboratories in situ. The difficulties with in vitro uses are that the ex vivo perfused hearts lack an associated thoracic cavity, resulting in the possibility of inconsistent placement of electrodes, and poor conduction of epicardial signals. We are developing in our laboratory means to use the CardioInsight^TM system on reanimated large mammalian hearts. Preliminary studies were conducted on swine hearts, but this system could be also be utilized with reanimated human hearts, making this research even more translatable. The use of this epicardial mapping system will allow for critical observations during pacing or ablation experiments and for collecting critical data for computational modeling.