Single equivalent dipole inverse electrocardiography based on ordinary 12 leads recordings

Abstract

The characterization of cardiac electric activity by equivalent electric sources including dipoles received a great research effort in the past. Recently these methods are revisited but exploiting a grid of multiple electrodes (up to 200), but these multi-lead electrodes are not widespread yet. Certainly, most hospitals and ordinary cardiology practice is still based on standard 12-lead ECG recordings. Exactly towards this aim is the effort put herein, hardly to exploit standard 12-lead ECG recordings to extract an equivalent electric dipole for the cardiac activity. Ultimately, this work aims at a trustworthy and very fast inverse ECG algorithm able to operate even with a simple standard ECG device available on an ambulance. This could contribute to early diagnosis as the type of heart malfunctioning during the patient transfer to the hospital.