Heart disease is a major killer in western society. Consequently, improving the management of cardiovascular disease is one of the greatest challenges facing healthcare.
In clinical practice, a true non-invasive medical application for functional electrophysiological imaging of the heart is not yet available. The fusion of electrocardiographic signals and MRI models of the individual heart can describe, to clinicians, the functional electrical state of the patient’s heart. Many conduction abnormalities (Arrhythmias) require prolonged catheter and x-ray based investigations.
MedTeQ’s research aim is to avoid the risk of these procedures and decrease diagnosis time by using existing MRI technology and the mathematical analysis of electrocardiographic signals to design a non-invasive imaging modality that can reconstruct three dimensional electrophysiological information of the heart from body surface potentials. This will provide a useful tool for spatiotemporal mapping of cardiac electrical events, and aid clinical diagnosis and treatment of cardiac abnormalities.