The inverse problem of electrocardiography: A solution in terms of single- and double-layer sources on the epicardial surface (Q1366968)

The paper presents a new approach to the inverse problem of electrocardiology: the computation of the electric potentials (double-layer equivalent sources) and their normal gradients (single-layer equivalent sources) on the heart epicardial surface from the electrocardiographic potentials which are measurable on the body surface. The authors show that this approach has some important practical advantages, e. g., by imaging of regional ischemia and infarction. To model the problem, the quasistatic approximation of Maxwell's equation is used, which leads to the boundary value problem for Laplace equations. By means of the boundary-element method and triangular discretization the problem reduces to solving a linear system with ill-conditioned matrix. To overcome this, Tikhonov's regularization method is applied, which replaces the problem with a perturbed least-squares one. Using generalized singular-value decomposition for different Tikhonov regularization operators, the authors show how to obtain the best possible solution. Further, the linearly constrained least-squares approach is described, which generates an improved Tikhonov solution. It is shown how the \(L\)-curve method can be used to estimate the optimal regularization parameter when a priori information for the exact solution is not available. By a realistic heart-and-torso model it is demonstrated that all presented methods are applicable to the new formulation of the inverse electrocardiological problem. The advantages of this approach are discussed in detail by the authors.