DEVELOPMENT OF A TRI-POLAR LAPLACIANELECTROCARDIO GRAM ELECTRODE USING NINE POINTFINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD

摘要

Potentials on the body surface from the heart are of a spatial and temporal function. The 12-Iead electrocardiogram (ECG) provides useful global temporal assessment, however it yields limited spatial information due to the smoothing effect of the volume conductor.We have developed a unique Laplacian ECG sensor, a concentric tri-polar electrode system, based upon a nine-point finite difference method approximation of the analytical Laplacian. This gives a more accurate solution of the Laplacian than a concentric bipolar electrode. Tri-polar and bipolar electrode systems were simulated on a mesh and their Laplacian estimates were compared with the analytical Laplacian.It was found that the concentric tri-polar electrode system has a much-improved accuracy with less relative and maximum errors in the estimation of the Laplacian operator. Due to the higher accuracy, the improved electrode configuration will allow more precise localization of electrical activity of the heart when compared to the concentric bi-polar configuration.