[Ventricular activation sequence estimated by body surface isochrone map].

Abstract

This study was performed to evaluate the usefulness of the body surface isochrone map (VAT map) for identifying the ventricular activation sequence, and it was correlated with the isopotential map. Subjects consisted of 42 normal healthy adults, 18 patients with artificial ventricular pacemakers, and 100 patients with ventricular premature beats (VPB). The sites of pacemaker implantations were the right ventricular endocardial apex (nine cases), right ventricular epicardial apex (five cases), right ventricular inflow tract (one case), left ventricular epicardial apex (one case), and posterior base of the left ventricle via the coronary sinus (two cases). An isopotential map was recorded by the mapper HPM-6500 (Chunichi-Denshi Co.) on the basis of an 87 unipolar lead ECG, and a VAT isochrone map was drawn by a minicomputer. The normal VAT map was classified by type according to alignment of isochrone lines, and their frequency was 57.1% for type A, 16.7% for type B, and 26.2% for type C. In the VAT map of ventricular pacing, the body surface area of initial isochrone lines represented well the sites of pacemaker stimuli. In the VAT map of VPB, the sites of origin of VPB agreed well with those as determined by the previous study using an isopotential map. The density of the isochrone lines suggested the mode of conduction via the specialized conduction system or ventricular muscle. The VAT map is a very useful diagnostic method to predict the ventricular activation sequence more directly in a single sheet of the map.